Sports

SPORTS & SCHOOL

RiverHawks win girls hockey showdown

Magic hand Bison first M8 loss of season

Journal-Press Sports Editor Heather Reinhart may be reached
by phone at 763-682-1221 or click here to email her

It, being the passion from an intense rivalry, which happens in every game between the North Wright County and Buffalo girl’s hockey teams.

Thursday’s game at the Buffalo Civic Center was no different, as the two skated to a 1-1 battle until a late third-period RiverHawks goal snapped the tie and handed the Bison their second straight 2-1 defeat.

The two teams were once one combined force called the Wright County Blades. Since then, they have developed one of the better high school rivalries. The RiverHawks, with players from St. Michael-Albertville, Monticello, and Annandale, are close to clinching their second consecutive Mississippi 8 Conference title. The Bison, with players from Buffalo, Delano, Rockford and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, split with NWC in each of the past two years. This year, NWC earned the sweep.

During the first meeting on Jan. 5 in Monticello, the RiverHawks won by a 3-1 score and Buffalo Coach Ray Dahlof said was not one of his team’s better efforts.

“We didn’t play as well up there and they really dominated us in the second period of that game,” Dahlof said. “I thought this game we competed and a bounce here or there and it could have been different.”

The RiverHawks were shorthanded during the second meeting on Thursday. NWC will be playing the rest of the season without leading scorer Kasey Blomberg. The junior forward had 40 goals and 18 assists a year ago. This year, she tallied 20 goals and 11 assists prior to breaking her lower fibula during a fluke accident at practice on Jan. 18.

With NWC’s leading scorer out, Buffalo had a lot of jump early, which led to a first-period goal by freshman defenseman Mackenzie Rixe. Rixe picked up a loose puck in the slot and fired a wrist shot past NWC goaltender Amanda Koep giving Buffalo a 1-0 lead. It was her second goal of the season with freshman defenseman Emily Varner getting the lone assist.

“I thought our defense made a lot of good passes and Rixe stood up on the first goal and made a nice play in the neutral zone,” Dahlof said. “I thought we had a strong effort from Lauren Rosso and Hannah Campion.”

Neither team could cash in on a number of breakaway and odd-man rushes late in the first and early in the second periods, but a rebound goal at the 7:58 mark of the second period by NWC sophomore Samantha Pitts eluded Buffalo’s junior goalie Haley Morningstar.

Morningstar has been the victim of some hard luck defeats of late, as the Bison have lost five of their last seven games. Four of those losses have been identical scores of 2-1.

Despite the lack of goal support in recent games, Morningstar said she is not feeling added pressure to carry the team.

“There’s pressure every game and you’ve got to do your best to fight through it,” she said.

The pressure mounted for Buffalo in the third period. The RiverHawks held possession most the period and Morningstar, who earlier stopped two breakaways, made her third breakaway save at the 12:30 mark on NWC freshman Dani Sibley. Sibley’s shot left a rebound though and freshman Halie Gudmonson was there to poke it home.

“Morningstar is so steady and gives Buffalo a chance to win every night,” said NWC Coach Tim Hanson.

In a game where both teams finished with 21 shots each, the Bison were outshot 10-3 in the final period and failed to mount any real threat as the RiverHawks escaped with a 2-1 road win.

The game could have been a higher score had it not been for Koep making several key saves early in the game to keep it close. Morningstar did her part late in the game to keep the Bison in the hunt until the late third-period goal.

Koep, a sophomore, took over in net after junior goalie Emma Mavencamp sustained a concussion earlier this month and filled the gap well. The two have shared goalie duties this season and Koep picked up her seventh win of the season against the Bison.

“Both goaltenders played outstanding, “Hanson said. “Koep really stepped up when we needed her. There were a ton of options both ways and it was definitely a goaltenders battle.”

The Bison have scored four goals in the last three games, but Dahlof said he’s not worried about the lack of scoring, rather the lack of opportunities.

“One issue we’ve had with a lot of these 2-1 games is we’re missing the net or shooting too high,” Dahlof said. “When we’re hitting the net, we’re not getting a lot of second chances. (NWC’s) winning goal was scored on a rebound and we haven’t had a lot of those type of goals.”

With the loss, the Bison fell to 6-5-0 in the Mississippi 8 and 11-10-2 overall. NWC remains in first place in the conference with an 8-1-2 record and is 16-3-4 overall.

“I thought we competed well and this is always a big rivalry,” Dahlof said. “The last two years we split with them and this year they got us both times. It’s hard to take, but I’m happy with how we played.”

Buffalo will close out the regular season conference schedule on Thursday, Feb. 4, with a home game against Princeton at 7 p.m. Earlier this year, the Bison defeated Princeton 2-1. Friday night, Buffalo will play its final regular season game at Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato.

“We’re pretty confident still and we should do pretty well in the last two games,” Morningstar said.

The Section 6AA Tournament is scheduled to begin Saturday, Feb. 13. See next week’s paper for details.

The past week brought some good and bad news for the Bison boys swim team. Buffalo was hoping to upset Monticello and remain in the hunt for its first Mississippi 8 Conference title, but instead lost to the Magic 97-84 on Thursday, Jan. 28.

“We knew it was a long shot,” Coach Pam Brophy said. “We had to swim our very best and had to catch a break.”

The good news came on Monday when the Bison defeated St. Cloud Apollo in the final home meet of the season and broke three school records in the process.

J.D. O’Donnell was the star for the Bison against Apollo. The sophomore set two pool records of his own, and anchored the 400 freestyle relay team to a record time of 3:34.98. Other relay team members were Blake Solberg, Tanner Bauman, and David Zaske.

O’Donnell also swam record times in the 200 freestyle and in the 100 freestyle. In the 200, he broke his own school record that was set in 2008 with a new time of 1:53.49. In the 100, O’Donnell bested Nate Engfer’s 2009 record of 51.54 seconds when he swam the race in 51.21 seconds on Monday night.

Other highlights against Apollo include Jamie Green’s 2:12.46 in the 200 freestyle, Michael Raitor’s winning score of 111.50 in diving, and Bauman’s 1:08.08 in the 100 butterfly. Jack Elliott won the butterfly with a time of 1:01.02.

In the 50 freestyle, Alex Ryan placed second with a time of 24.05 seconds and Zaske placed third with a season-best 24.20. In the JV heat, Cameron Decker turned in a strong time of 27.84 seconds. In the JV butterfly, Brandon Morain had a winning time of 1:25.61 and Spencer Bowden placed second in 1:33.63.

Following O’Donnell’s record swim in the 100 freestyle was Ryan, who placed second in the event with a personal-best time of 53.07 seconds. Nic Engfer also had a strong winning time of 58.81 seconds in the JV heat.

In the 500 freestyle, Max Ransom placed second in 5:40.23 and Mitch Ryan was third in 5:51.18. Alex Ryan, Charlie Peterson, Austin Mann and O’Donnell had a winning time of 1:39.09 in the 200 freestyle relay. Solberg won the backstroke with a time of 1:02.33, and Zaske won the breaststroke with a 1:06.67.

In the 200 IM, brothers Jack and Will Elliott placed first and second respectively with times of 2:17.80 and 2:20.67.

Brophy said last week’s loss to Monticello was a reality check for her team, which had not been challenged in many meets this season. She said it became clear that the team’s sprinting events were the weakest. The Magic swept the 50 free and finished first, third, and fourth in the 100 free.

Bison highlights included Alex Ryan’s winning time of 1:58.06 in the 200 freestyle. Mitch Ryan had a personal-best time of 2:02.94 and placed fourth in the event, while Green placed sixth in 2:10.66.

O’Donnell was second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:10.48. Jack and Will Elliott both had personal-best times in the event and placed fourth and sixth respectively. Bauman and Patrick Raitor placed second and third in diving. It was Raitor’s first meet back after tearing cartilage in his knee while skiing earlier this season.

In the butterfly, Jack Elliott placed second with a personal-best 59.70 seconds. Solberg was third in 1:01.70, which was also a personal best. Zaske had a season-best 53.27 and placed second in the 100 freestyle. O’Donnell was second with a 5:15.33 in the 500 freestyle while Ransom placed fifth in the same event with a personal-best time of 5:38.32.

Zaske won the breaststroke with a time of 1:07.89, and Solberg, Connor Mann, and Jonathan R. Danielson placed second, third and fourth respectively in the backstroke.

In the junior varsity competition, one of the highlights came in the 50 freestyle where Buffalo’s Cameron Decker went head-to-head with his brother Josh, who is on the Monticello team. Josh generally swims in the varsity race but was put into the JV heat so he could swim with his brother. Josh swam a time of 25.6 seconds while Cameron finished in 27.8 seconds.

Bowden swam a personal-best 1:44 in the JV butterfly, and Jamie Green swam a season-best time of 5:56.22 in the 500 freestyle.

Brophy said she was pleased with the performances and noted that 15 junior varsity swimmers and 10 varsity swimmers had season-best times in the meet.

“That’s hard to do at this time of year when you’re really packing on the yards,” she said, adding that the team has been swimming 7,000 yards in practice.

Buffalo will swim in its final regular-season meet on Thursday, Feb. 4, at Cambridge-Isanti. The team then takes some time off before heading to the Section 8AA Meet on Feb. 26-27 at St. Cloud Tech.

St. Michael-Albertville put a quick end to Buffalo’s nine-game winning streak when the girls basketball team came into Bison territory on Monday night and handed the home team its third loss of the season.

Not only did the 69-60 Bison loss drop the team into a tie for the Mississippi 8 Conference lead, but it also knocked them out of the top spot in the section standings, and took away Buffalo’s claim to the M8 traveling trophy.

The Bison jumped out to a quick 14-5 lead in the first five minutes, but STMA followed with a nice run and came back within two points. Buffalo clung to the small lead throughout the first half and went into the break ahead 29-28.

From there, the Knights took over, leading by nine with six minutes to play and eventually winning by the same margin.

“The basketball effort of STMA’s performance was just a little better,” Bison Coach Scot Sorenson said. “It came down to free throws in the last seven or eight minutes,” Sorenson said. “They made theirs and we missed most of ours.”

Buffalo made just 10-of-21 free throw attempts in the game while the Knights were good on 21-of-38 tries.

Sorenson credited the opponent’s physical effort and high intensity, but added that his team was not at its best Monday night. STMA also had 15 steals in the contest to just five for the Bison.

Buffalo junior Kendra Wycoff led all scorers with a season-high 22 points. Junior Molly Muntifering added nine points and 10 rebounds, while junior Malorie Schmidt added eight points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Muntifering and Schmidt sat on the bench for much of the second half after getting into foul trouble.

The Knights were led by senior Carly Rothstein, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Bailey Thompson added 12 points, and sophomore Christine Thorn scored 10 points and led the team with six steals.

Buffalo and STMA are now tied for the M8 lead with 10-1 records. Both team’s losses came to each other as the Bison beat the Knights in an earlier meeting on Dec. 22.

Last week, Buffalo earned a 66-33 win over Princeton and a 61-49 victory over Monticello. Playing at home against the Tigers on Tuesday, Jan. 26, Buffalo used a balanced scoring attach to keep Princeton caged all night.

Junior Courtney Daniels did a nice job of getting in on the action, She had 10 points, five assists and three steals in the game. The Bison were led by Muntifering’s 17 points and five rebounds. Wycoff also had 13 points in the win, and was 4-for-8 from 3-point range.

Sorenson said that Monticello came ready to play on Friday and hit their shots early on.

“They had their whole team ready to take advantage of things offensively,” Sorenson said.

But the Bison were a little too much for the Magic and won 61-49 in the end. Sorenson said strong offensive play from Schmidt and the entire team kept the Bison on top.

Schmidt led Buffalo’s offensive attack with 15 points, eight rebounds, and four assists. Muntifering added 13 points and Wycoff had 10 points and three steals. The Magic were led by sophomore Tish Jude, who had 12 points, and sophomore Morgan Sawatzke, who had 10 points and six rebounds.

Buffalo is now 16-3 overall and will host Rogers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Next Tuesday, the Bison will host Becker at 7:30 p.m. Also worth mentioning is that Friday, Feb. 12, will be parent’s night when the Bison host Zimmerman. Senior night is Feb. 23 against Cambridge-Isanti.

The race for the Mississippi 8 Conference title in boys basketball got a little hotter Monday night when league-leading Rogers lost a 54-50 game to Cambridge-Isanti.

The M8 loss was the first of the season for the Royals, and ended a seven-game win streak that began on Jan. 5 when Rogers defeated Buffalo 65-50 in Bison territory. That early-January loss to Rogers is the only M8 loss for the Bison this season and the two teams now share the conference lead with 8-1 records. (Cambridge and St. Michael-Albertville are tied for third at 5-4.)

On Thursday, Feb. 4, the Bison will head to Rogers for the rematch at 7:30 p.m. and the winner will control its own destiny in the race for the title.

“We just want to continue to do the things that we do,” Coach Nick Guida said. “You don’t want them to dictate how you’re going to play, you want to dictate to them.”

Buffalo has been on its own winning streak as of late. Wins over Princeton and Monticello last week, paired with a victory of STMA on Monday night have stretched the win streak to nine straight games. The last loss came at the hands of the Royals.

“We might have less talent, but we’re not going to get out-played and out-hustled and hopefully we’ll do enough little things right,” Guida said.

Buffalo has used a strong offensive and defensive combination to win recent games, along with balanced scoring from seniors Aaron Duske, Brent Kettenacker, and Zach Hartung. Senior Erik Starr has also become a tremendous asset for the Bison this season.

“He’s turned into one of those players where he’s doing a little bit of everything for us,” Coach Nick Guida said. “He’s been a big key to our success in this run. Whatever little thing our team needs he’s ready to give us. He’s just flourishing in that role.”

During Buffalo’s 66-52 victory over STMA on Monday night, Starr only scored six points but was 3-for-4 from the floor with three assists and seven rebounds.

Duske led the scoring that night with a big 20 points and nine rebounds, while Kettenacker added 17 points and four steals. Hartung also reached double figures with 12 points and was 2-for-3 from 3-point range.

In the win over the Knights, the Bison held off STMA’s strong attack-style of play in the second half, and countered with unbelievable shooting (68 percent from 2-point range) to win.

Last Tuesday, Jan. 26, the Bison played at Princeton and dominated, winning 59-24. The Tigers were held to just seven points in the first half.

“It seemed like everything we did was right and we just built off it,” Guida said. “We kind of took the wind out of their sails right away.”

Buffalo made 9-of-10 free throws in the game, shot 52 percent from 2-point range, and 46 percent from 3-point range.

Duske led the way with 20 points, four assists, eight rebounds, and four steals. Hartung added nine rebounds (eight defensively), and junior Andy Ortmann scored nine points

At home against Monticello on Friday, Buffalo fought to a 27-17 lead at halftime and went on to win 58-45.

“We just kind of managed things throughout the whole game,” Guida said. “Our team defense is pretty sound.”

Four Bison players scored in double digits that night. Duske had 18, Kettenacker added 14, Starr scored 11, and Hartung added 10. Andy Ortmann had four assists, while Duske led the Bison in rebounds with nine.

Buffalo is now 11-5 overall and will play at Rogers on Thursday night. On Saturday, the Bison will host state-ranked Robbinsdale Cooper at 2:30 p.m. in the Pat Sonju Memorial Game. Cooper holds a 14-3 record and is currently ranked No. 4 in Class 4A, but has lost its last two games to Wayzata (ranked No. 2 in Class 4A) and Colombia Heights.

“Nickel and Dimed” felt the pinch on Saturday as the Buffalo High School One-Act Play earned a third-place finish at the Sub-Section Tournament in Delano, which ended the season.

The Bison were third to Delano and Marshall and Director Tracy Hagstrom Durant said the “Nickel and Dimed” drama may have been hard to take.

Durant said Delano’s winning one-act “Defying Gravity” is about the space shuttle explosion, where the urgency of the event immediately evokes the emotions of viewers. “Nickel and Dimed” is about an author who takes a minimum wage job to see if she can survive, and plans to write a book about her experience and the people she meets.

“This show kind of needs to ooze into you,” Durant said. “It hits home for a lot of people and is hard to take.”

Only the top two plays from the Sub-Section earned a spot in the Section 2AA Tournament, which Buffalo will host on Thursday, Feb. 4. While they won’t be performing, Durant said the cast and crew have really learned a lot through their performances this season.

“I think it’s been a life-changing experience for them,” she said. “You step back and go, whoa. I think it’s been an incredible educational experience.”

Buffalo will host the Section 2AA competition in the Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Feb. 4, beginning at 4 p.m. Four different plays will be performed with the top play advancing to the state meet.

Delano is first on the schedule and will perform “Defying Gravity” at 4 p.m. Marshall will follow with their comedy “All in the Timing” at 4:55 p.m. After a 30-minuite intermission/dinner break, New Prague will perform “Sideways Stories from Wayside School” at 6:15 p.m. New Ulm will end the competition with a 7:10 p.m. performance of “A Merry Regiment of Women”. An awards ceremony will follow at approximately 8:15 p.m.

Admission is free, and pizza will be sold by the slice during intermission. Guests will not be allowed to enter or exit the theatre during a performance.