Local Sports

OREGON – Every time her team needed her, West Carroll’s Rebecca Fritz delivered.

Tyler Loos has no reason to be hungry after Sterling football games this season.

OREGON – Newman Central Catholic’s fine volleyball season came to an end Tuesday.

LANARK – Twice Eastland and Lena-Winslow met during the regular season.

ROCHELLE – Once upon a time, Keeley Knie, Morgan Martells and Brittney Schreiner played for a Sterling volleyball team that went 10-21. It was the Golden Warriors’ 13th consecutive season with 18 or more losses.

Logan Frye dropped back on Saturday one last time in hopes of saving Sherrard’s football season.

Nick and Chris McKeown are in the middle of the action, be it before, during or after Oregon football games.

GENESEO – The Sterling Golden Warriors earned their first volleyball regional title since 1996 Saturday night.

POLO – Eastland started slowly Saturday night, and finished sluggishly.

ROCK FALLS – Sarah Prendergast and her Newman teammates got their fill of plaques this week.

CROSS COUNTRY

AURORA – On their biggest stage to date, the Newman boys cross country team turned in its top performance so far.

AURORA – Between the mud, wind and biting cold, there was a lot of grumbling from runners, coaches and fans alike Saturday at the Class 1A Aurora Christian cross country sectional.

EAST PEORIA – After years working on his father’s dairy farm, Jake Landis felt right at home in the mud.

Allison Yemm earned co-MVP honors to lead Sterling to top team honors in the Northern Illinois Independent Swimming Championship on Saturday in Byron.

EAST PEORIA – The girls race at the Class 2A East Peoria cross country sectional was over for an hour and a half on Saturday when Evan Thorpe turned to his daughter, Haley.

AMBOY – The Amboy-LaMoille football team had no trouble advancing to the second round of the IHSA playoffs, defeating AlWood-ROWVA 41-0 Saturday in a Class 2A first-round game.

EAST DUBUQUE – Dane Bumsted had been through this before, but it didn't ease any of the pain – emotional or physical – oozing out of his pores.

SHERRARD – Mike Papoccia got very mad. His Newman Comets defense got very even. 

MORRISON –  The top-ranked Morrison Mustangs looked scary good on Halloween as they rolled to a 55-20 win over the Deer Creek-Mackinaw Chiefs in an Illinois Class 2A first-round playoff football matchup Saturday afternoon.

ALEDO – Time ran out on the Bureau Valley Storm's season Saturday.

STERLING – Macros Rivera won’t soon forget Friday night.

ROCKFORD – Nick McKeown and his Oregon teammates were some happy mudders on Friday night.

Sterling’s Joseph Bertrand made his Illinois basketball debut Friday night, scoring six points in the Fighting Illini’s 95-67 win against Missouri Southern in an exhibition game at Assembly Hall in Champaign.

ROCK FALLS – Jay Howell had seen enough.

ROCK FALLS – The first pill was bitter.

Drew Cheatham wasn’t nearly as nervous as he thought he should be, what with the size of the cleats he was stepping in to fill.

Illinois freshman guard Joseph Bertrand could redshirt this basketball season, according to online reports published Thursday by the Champaign News-Gazette and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

GENESEO – Sterling senior outside hitter Brittney Schreiner got just what she wanted for her 18th birthday: a postseason victory.

CORRECTION

POLO – The Ashton-Franklin Center Raiders never knew what hit them. The Milledgeville volleyball team made sure it kept up the pressure.

The Bureau Valley volleyball team scored an upset at its own regional Thursday, when the third-seeded Storm knocked off second-seeded Princeton 25-15, 18-25, 25-16 in a 2A semifinal at Manlius.