6November 2016SportsS h a m r o c k s f a l l t o S t a r s

By Matt HoenkStaff Reporter

By Matt HoenkStaff Reporter

By Matt StreckerStaff Reporter

By Tate VunCannonEditor

Abbie PerAult/YeArbook StAff

Senior running back Chase Newman attempts to break a tackle from the Kear-ney Catholic Stars in their playoff game on October 28th. The Shamrocks were defeated 33-30.

The 2016 Shamrock football season was cut short on October 28th during the first round of the playoffs by a familiar foe: the Kearney Catholic Stars.

The Shamrocks entered the NSAA 2016 C-1 State Football Playoffs as the 12th seed after defeating Adams Central in the final regular season game of the year to earn the district C1-6 cham-pionship.

The Shamrocks defeated the Patriots 48-26 in Hastings on October 21st, and, due to the Lakeview Vikings win over the Ord Chanticleers on the same night, the district title belonged to the Sham-rocks.

“Coming off the win against Adams Central, all I was thinking about was the playoffs,” Brandon Huynh, junior defensive tackle said. “I was as confident as I had ever been.”

The Saturday following the Adams Central victory, the playoff brackets were

released, and the Shamrocks were paired with the fifth seeded Kearney Catho-lic Stars. This would be a rematch of the 2014 quar-terfinals of the state football tournament. In 2014, the Shamrocks fell to the Stars on a last second field goal.

“We finished that [2014] season 9-2 and, once again, that game was one I was con-fident we would win,” head coach Tyler Linder said. “It was really the opposite of this last game; we started hot in that game and slowly fizzled with turnovers and injuries. We kept that game fresh in our minds.”

The 2016 seniors on the rosters had a similar feeling on the first round matchup against the Stars.

“I was excited,” Jake Novicki, a junior offensive lineman said. “I wanted to avenge the loss that the 2014 team took in the playoffs. That loss still hurts to think about.”

The Shamrocks, how-ever, found themselves dug into an early hole giving up 20 straight points to Kearney

Catholic. Senior running back Evan Chohon then responded with a 65 yard sprint to the end zone to put the Sham-rocks on the board.

The Shamrocks came back from a 20-0 deficit to tie the game up at 20 apiece. Be-fore the half ended, however, the Stars took the lead back with a field goal to put them up 23-20.

“I knew it was ours,” Linder said, referring to the remaining half to play. “I knew if we played our kind of ball we would have a chance to win, maybe not in the 3rd quarter, but in the 4th.”

With 1:32 left in the game, the Shamrocks got the ball back, down 33-30, with a chance to put the game away and move on to the next round of the playoffs. How-ever, the Shamrocks made it down to the red zone and were not able to score. The final buzzer sounded, and the season was over.

“My heart dropped,” Luke Jarecke, senior running back and cornerback said. “Mostly because I still be-lieve we won that game.”

The Shamrock seniors had just finished their last game of high school football. However, now that their senior season of Friday night lights is over, a few Sham-rocks have turned their atten-tion to playing on Saturdays in college.

“I do see myself playing

college football; I am not sure though where at,” Cho-hon said.

The Shamrocks ended their season with a 6-4 record and a district championship under their belts. The Sham-rocks also earned the number nine spot in the final Class C1 rankings.

“[I’m] just very proud of the way we grew through-out the season,” Linder said. “Starting the season against Wayne and ending the season against Kearney Catholic, the growth in between is some-thing that cannot be mea-sured, and I hope our fans saw it as much as I did.”

Vo l l e y b a l l w r a p s u p s e a s o nAs October transitions

into November and all the fall sports begin to wrap up, one Scotus mainstay activity has concluded earlier than

usual. For just the second time since 1988, the Scotus Central Catholic volleyball team did not participate in the state tournament played from November 10th to November 12th. They were defeated in the subdistrict final by Lakev-iew High School 3 sets to 1.

The Shamrocks began their late season push with a triangular on October 18th at Lincoln Lutheran. In their first match of the evening, the Shamrocks defeated Lin-coln Lutheran 25-10, 20-25, 25-16 in a competitive three set bout. Another three set

match with C-2 state qualifier Hastings St. Cecilia proved to be a little too much for the Shamrocks. The Lady Blue-hawks won 19-25, 25-15, 25-11. Senior libero Eastyn Klink saw progress in the split for her team.

“We worked hard every single day at practice, and I think in this last stretch of games we’ve been a different team,” Klink said. “Each player has stepped up for the team at some point and allowed us to have some success.”

The Shamrocks’ last test before subdistricts would be an uphill battle. On Octo-ber 25th, the schedule pitted Scotus against the nationally ranked Skyhawks of Omaha Skutt Catholic. At the time of this match, Skutt was 34-0 and had lost four sets the entire season. The storyline would be no different in their match against the Shamrocks, as they swept the match 25-5, 25-14, 25-12.

Senior defensive special-ist Alyssa Kuta has been a three year varsity contributor.

“Getting to the play the 6th best volleyball team in the entire nation was an opportu-nity not many teams around here get to experience,” Kuta remarked.

With the regular season concluded, the Shamrocks prepared for the subdistrict tournament on October 31st. In the first match, Scotus made quick work of the 6-22 David City Scouts 25-12, 25-17, 25-12.

The Shamrocks’ big-gest challenge of the sea-son presented itself in the next match: the subdistrict final against crosstown rival Lakeview. Sophomore out-side hitter Bailey Lehr was a fresh face for the Shamrocks this year, starting every match with no prior varsity experience.

“It’s super fun to play in that intense environment of a Lakeview game because the players and the crowd get pumped,” Lehr said. “It almost makes you feel like you’re at a mini state tournament when you play Lakeview.”

Among a packed crowd at Columbus High School, the Shamrocks took a tightly contested first set 25-22. After that, however, the Viqueens were able to win the second set 25-21 and ride the momentum to the end of the match. Lakeview defeated Scotus 22-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-20. Senior middle hitter Jessica Buhman led the Shamrocks with nine kills on the night.

“Obviously, we wish it would have gone better, but I love my team, and I’m proud of the way we fought until the end,” Buhman stated. “Coach told us to leave the game with no regrets, and I believe we did that.”

The Shamrocks finished their season with a final record of 14-12.

“Although the ending wasn’t ideal, I wouldn’t trade my experiences as a Scotus volleyball player for any-thing. It has been a privilege to be part of the legacy that is Scotus volleyball,” Buhman concluded.SeniorJessica Buhman attacks a ball past the Lakeview block in the subdis-

trict final on October 31st at Columbus High School. The Viqueens defeated the Shamrocks 3 sets to 1.

ChASe NewmAN/mediA StAff

Softball bats big finish at districts Tennis takes conference runner-up

Not all Scotus athletes shine in the green and white uniforms. Some of them show their talents wearing maroon and white uniforms. This is the case for seniors Emily Hand and Megan Ohnoutka and junior Marika Spencer along with the rest of the nine Scotus softball players this year.

The softball team came away with 14 wins on the season, including two wins to help them gain their title as district runner-up.

The softball season, like any other sport, has its ups and downs. The softball play-ers hold favorite moments on and off the field.

“My favorite memory was breaking the home run record; that moment will always have a special place in my heart,” Spencer said.

Though Spencer had hit many home runs in her three seasons as a CHS softball player, this was not the case for every player. One Scotus

player had her first home run this year.

Hand said, “[My favorite memory was] during the Grand Island game when I hit my first home run; their coach also got ejected, which was pretty cool.”

The team finished the season at the district tourna-ment. They started off the day against Fremont High, where they were defeated in a com-petitive game 1-3. The team then bounced back from this early loss with a dominating win over Omaha Benson 10-0, and then beat Fremont in another close game 3-2.

This left the team in the finals against Papillion La Vista, where they fell 4-6, bringing their season to an end.

Ohnoutka said, “[My fa-vorite game was] the district semi-final game where we came back to beat Fremont after they beat us earlier in the day.”

With the team graduating two seniors this year, they re-flect on their seasons playing softball.

Hand concluded, “I had a fun time, and the team was really great.”

With the changing of weather seasons also comes the changing of sport seasons. This change spelled out an end to the CHS boys’ tennis season.

This year the team had three Scotus athletes compete for the tennis team, seniors Matt Hoenk and Brady Miller along with freshman Adam Kamrath

Hoenk played both sin-gles and doubles, and Miller

played both #1 and #2 dou-bles. Both players brought home wins and medals from various meets this year. Kam-rath came into the season as a junior varsity player, but fought his way into the varsity squad, bringing home a few medals of his own at #2 singles. Hoenk and Miller also teamed up at the Colum-bus Open to bring home a 2nd place medal as a doubles team to help the team finish first overall. This was the first and only meet the two of them would play together.

“I think the season went very well, and it was a lot of

fun to play this year,” Miller said

There were many close matches and memorable mo-ments including Kamrath’s singles match win against Norfolk in a tiebreaker. Mill-er’s personal favorite match of the year was when he and his doubles partner CHS senior Trey Rinkol came back from a 0-7 deficit to York to win the match 9-7.

The team ended the ten-nis season this year finishing runner up at conference, bringing home medals at conference in every division and competing at the state tournament.

With two of the three Scotus tennis athletes having finished their careers at CHS, they had time to reflect on their tennis careers.

Miller reflected on his tennis career saying, “I’m definitely going to miss play-ing, I had a blast.”

Hoenk added, “Tennis as a whole was a positive ex-perience. I learned a lot from the sport, both on and off the court.”

Junior Tessa Bridger steps up to bat against Lincoln Southeast. The softball team fell to the Knights, 1-8.

mAllorY o’heArN/roCk bottom StAff lAYNe SChroeder/roCk bottom StAff

Senior tennis captain Matt Hoenk sets up for an overhead against York. The doubles team defeated York 8-0.