Prep Sports Notebook: Spartan teams open season with victories

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SJO volleyball tops Trojans

There is nothing better than starting a new season with a victory. The St. Joseph-Ogden volleyball team return to action this month with Kennedi Burnett leading the Spartans' offensive effort with 13 kills. Becca Steinbach tallied 32 assists, nine digs and a couple of blocks in the non-conference match on Monday. After dropping the first set 23-25, the Spartans roared back to take the next two, 25-20, 25-18 for the road win.

Addie Roesch served up three aces while senior Hannah Fox led the team's defensive effort with 16 digs. Junior Shayne Immke contributed another nine kills and six digs.

The Spartans, who will host their first home match of the season on August 31, will play their next three contests on the road starting with Georgetown-Ridge Farm on Wednesday followed by another Vermilion Valley foe, Bismarck-Henning, 24 hours later on Thursday. SJO's road campaign ends on Monday after a trip to Decatur for a showdown with St. Teresa.

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Soccer avenges last season loss

Will Page settles the ball while playing in last Friday's Spartan Kickoff against teammates. Page scored one of two goals against the Comets on Monday.

Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Back in March, the Oakwood-Catlin soccer coop crushed the SJO soccer team on their home turf, 6-2. On Monday, the Spartans invaded the Comets' home field, scoring a goal in each half for a 2-1 season-opening win.

Aiden Cromwell notched the program's first goal of the season in the first half to put St. Joseph-Ogden up 1-0. Senior Brennan Haake was credited with the assist on the play. Later, in the second half, junior Will Page nailed a penalty kick to give SJO a 2-0 lead before an Oakwood-Catlin kick from Saul Carillo found net.

Starting keeper Hunter Ketchum fended off 15 attacks on his goal.

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Coaches, please send us your game scores

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Photo Gallery | Spartans notch first soccer win of the season

St. Joseph-Ogden's Logan Ingram boots the ball down the field during second half soccer action against Meridian on March 22. After a well-played contest and a loss on the road at St. Thomas More, SJO rebounded to shoot down the visiting Hawks, 3-2.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Moving from her usual role as defender, Emily Elsbernd dribbles the ball unchallenged toward the Meridian box playing in a forward position.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Spartan Jared Emmert concentrates on making a pass in front of Hawk defender.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

SJO defender Will Page lines up a pass away from Meridian forwards during first half play on Monday.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

Running stride for stride with a Meridian player, Spartan Spencer Wilson pushes the ball across the field to change the game momentum.

PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks

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Spartans of the Week: Bigger and Ketchum

Week 4
Lady Spartan of the Week:
Emily Bigger

Emily Bigger booked 38 assists in the Spartans' last two volleyball victories. Thanks to her precision passing ability and quickness, SJO boasts an impressive 14-3 record heading into tonight's homecoming game against Illini Prairie Conference rival St. Thomas More.

Honorable Mentions: Jenna Albrecht (volleyball), Katelyn Berry (volleyball), Kennedi Burnett (volleyball), Hanna Eastin (cross country), Ally Monk (cross country), Jillian Plotner (cross country) and Stephanie Trame (volleyball).

Week 4 Spartan of the Week: Hunter Ketchum

The freshman goal tender has logged 483 minutes of playing time in his rookie season with the Spartans. With 57 saves so far at the keeper position, he is becoming more fearless by the week. From the start of the season until the Monticello match at the Cornjerker Classic, Ketchum was averaging 6.3 saves per game. Look for Ketchum to be one of the area's best in the box over the next three seasons with the St. Joseph-Ogden soccer program.

Honorable Mentions: Crayton Burnett (football), Braden Clampitt (cross country), Zach Martinie (football), Brandon Mattsey (cross country), Eric Poe (cross country), Jarrett Stevenson (football), Brayden Wearver and Sam Wesley (football).

Previous Spartans of the Week

Week 1: Jarrett Stevenson / Katelyn Berry
Week 2: Emily Elsbernd / Jaden Weaver
Week 2: Drew Coursey / Hannah Rajlich

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Attention high school coaches: Help us recognize our area prep athletes each week. Please send game scores and stats to us for freshman and junior varsity as well as varsity games. Send game, race and match results and weekly stats to sports@oursentinel.com.

Plotner finishes first in dual against Sages, soccer takes another hit

Sports Book: September 17

SJO takes 9 of the top spots

In a dual meet with Monticello, the boys cross country team placed in nine of top 10 spots on Tuesday. Brandon Mattsey finished the 3-mile course in second place just under minute behind the Sages' number one runner, Josh Baysore.

Chasing Mattsey to the finish line were eight other St. Joseph-Ogden runners starting with Eric Poe, who was third with a time of 19:01, and Lukas Hutcherson, who rounded out the top four places in the non-team scored event crossing the finish line at 19:04. The trio were followed by Luke Stegall (5th, 19:07), Logan Wolfersberger (6th, 19:09), Braden Clampitt (7th,19:11), Elijah Mock (8th, 19:30), Ethan Blackburn (9th, 20:37) and Charlie Mabry in 10th place at 20:51.

Hunter Ketchum bravely makes a save as he slides in front of the Spartans' goal in their home conference match against Monticello on Tuesday. Despite frosh keeper's best effort, SJO dropped a second consecutive match to the Sages, 5-0. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

Soccer suffers another loss

The Spartan soccer fell 5-0 in league play to visiting Monticello for their first Illini Prairie Conference loss of the season.

Plotner leads SJO contingent

Jillian Plotner turned in a 21:15 to win the girls race in their dual meet against Monticello at Kickapoo. She finished 12th overall in a combined boys/girls race. Hannah Rajlich crossed the finish line in the silver medal position five seconds later at 21:20 and Ava Knap took third with a time of 21:27. The fourth female runner to finish, Ashlyn Lannert (21:53) came in 16th overall. Ally Monk was 5th in her division and 19th overall at 22:07.

Volleyball team declaw Panthers

Middle blocker Lacey Kaiser had nine kills. The Spartans collected and additional seven from Kennedi Burnett and the same number from Katelyn Berry to help SJO improved to 12-3. Read The Sentinel game story . . .

Varsity soccer falls 2-0, Berry leads volleyball in loss to Maroons

Sports Book: September 10

SJO falls at home to Central

The St. Joseph-Ogden volleyball team picked up their second loss of the season after a 2-0 loss to visiting Champaign Central.

Katelyn Berry led the Spartans with seven kills and four digs in the non-conference match up. Jenna Albrecht contributed another five as the program's record moves to 4-2 on the season. Lacey Kaiser buoyed the team at the net with three blocks.

The Spartans host the Oakwood Comets tonight for another non-conference match before heading to the Mahomet-Seymour tournament this weekend.

Second half slide nips soccer team

Freshman keeper Hunter Ketchum had six saves in the Spartans' 2-0 loss to Fisher-GCMS at home last night. Bunnies Ethan Kasper scored the only two goals in the non-conference contest. His second came on a penalty kick less than ten yards from the posts.

SJO had a plethora of runs that could have resulted in scores, but could not put the ball in the net on their new field at the Sports Complex.

"I feel like we just lacking one part," said senior Kolton Batty. He is optimistic about the rest of the season and the current record is part of the process of maturing as a team. "Its just mental. I know we are a better team than we are."

The Spartans drop to 1-5-1 and play Oakwood at the Cornjerker Classic in Hoopeston on Friday. Match time is set for 4pm.

Blackburn first at Oakwood Invite

Ethan Blackburn ran a 12:53.66 at Kickapoo to finish first in the Oakwood-Salt Fork triangle meet. Tad Pettit finished the two-mile course, shorten from three-miles due to the extreme heat on Tuesday, at 12:56.66. Brandon Mattsey and Eric Poe cross the line six-seven to round out the top four SJO runners.




UPDATE: This article was updated 9/12/19 with boys cross country team results.

Seeley finds varsity soccer's first goal

St. Joseph-Ogden senior Zach Seeley makes a pass during first half action against visiting University High on Thursday. The veteran soccer player scored the team's first goal of the season. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

To say the the St. Joseph-Ogden soccer team is off to a slow start would be quite the understatement.

Two hundred and 27 minutes into the season, roughly a little more than two and half games, senior Zack Seeley finally nailed the soccer team's first goal of the season. Unfortunately, the Spartans (0-2-1) needed another seven to beat visiting Urbana University on Thursday.

It wasn't an effortless performance by Illineks, who collected three goals in the first half and four in the second en route their 7-1 non-conference win. Despite the youth in their numbers this season, the Spartan defensive effort made their opponent work for every point they put on the board except for two successful penalty kicks.

"We have seven freshmen and four seniors. We still trying to find the right niche with who we can play where," said head coach Daniel Vogelsang. "We are still experimenting a bit and what better time to do that than early in the season."

Uni-High is a perennial postseason small school soccer program. Vogelsang's looked at the defeat as a valuable teaching moment.

"A lot of things went right even though we lost," he said. "One thing we are going to take away from this is a lot of ideas for training."

His plan includes ramping up the cardio.

"We know our touches weren't there. We were already wore out in the first half," he said as the junior varsity team battled on the new playing field behind him. He added: "It's early in the season and we are still trying to get all the nerves out."

Uni-High's Lucas Wood, who was one of five who scored on SJO, celebrated a hat trick after hitting a penalty in kick in both periods. His third and final goal came with just a little less than for minutes left in the game after the ball deflected off the hands of Spartan goal keep Mason Behrens.

Despite Behrens seven saves, four other Uni players contributed to their dominate offense effort against the Spartans.

"Taking a loss like this builds character," Vogelsang explained. "It is going to help us out later on when it matters in the postseason."

Spartan Tyler Sullivan shields the ball from a pair of University High players in the first half. The junior say 38 minutes of playing time in the non-conference match. (Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks)

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Seeley, who scored with 11 minutes and 16 seconds left in the game, took advantage of a late game substitution. When the Illinek keeper made a short pass to the newly entered teammate in front of the box, he sprung into action.

"He (the Uni defender) had a mis-touch on the ball so I stole it," Seeley said. "I saw the goal wide open and took the shot."

Seeley knows there is work to be done by the team before the postseason starts.

"We are really young. We are really stacked on juniors," he said. "We have a lot of you talent and have a bit of growing to do."