Bluebirds Roar Back v Eagles in Classic 1st Round
Goessel Varsity Guys Basketball - Elyria Christian @ Goessel December 4, 2018
Down by 11 in the 2nd quarter, Goessel’s Bluebirds roared back in the 3rd quarter, going on a 12-6 run to knot at 21 with a minute and a half left. Seniors Tyler Huxman and Caleb Froese, however, were having none of that and stroked four straight treys to put away the 1st round Bluebird classic contest. Goessel could not recover from the stunning turn and Elyria went on to win 25-39.
For the 2nd straight game this year, Goessel started slow, digging a 0-9 hole after three minutes of classic defensive chess. Forays by Froese punched holes in the solid Goessel defense. Nothing was falling for the Bluebirds until Dylan Lindeman pulled down his own miss from deep right and drained a 13 footer at the buzzer 2-9.
Despite good hands defense, it was more of the same in the 2nd. At 6:32, Dylan again found the range, dropping in a pull up jumper to go 4-13. The Bluebirds had excellent stops from Drew Lindeman, Skyler Wuest and kept the Eagles stymied throughout the quarter. Jerah Schmidt buried one from so deep, Jayley’s pink kinetic sand went ballistic and got temporarily caught in grandpa Lehrman’s beard. Hard defensive work, holding the Eagles to 2 points in 6.5 minutes, created opportunities at the other end and Wuest hit a baseline beauty to stay at 9-15 in a quarter Goessel won 7-6.
Out of the chute, Dylan created huge fan buzz with a coast to coast run and finish 11-15 but the Eagles’ Nelson answered with 3, a foretaste of things to come. Drew coasted in a picture perfect jumper from 12 feet, Jerah attempted a gorgeous reverse layup, and Dylan jumped a passing lane, again going the length of the court and absolutely igniting the assembled fans 15-18. After an Eagle timeout, Jake Hagewood parked in the deep right corner and launched one so high it actually intercepted the radio signal from the InSight Mars lander, causing NASA to place a distress call to Mr. Boden. 18-20. Not to be outdone, Jerah pointed his range-finder from the exact same spot and let fly again…….nothing but net! This time, Mr. Boden called the Jet Propulsion Lab. Goessel had put on a 12-6 run through 6.5 minutes, tying the contest at 21 and absolutely on a roll. Back in a zone, the Bluebirds sought to keep the Eagles from penetrating and any easy buckets. Huxman took his cue and lit it up from outside, hitting two straight long treys. The Eagles stopped Jerah once and Dylan again going hard to the hoop and to close the quarter Froese buried yet another long bomb from the corner to take every bit of air out of the room 21-30. Goessel’s fans and team were shell-shocked by the 0-9 swing in the space of under 90 seconds. Instead of a huge 12-6 quarter it turned into a 12-15 space.
Huxman buried yet another to put the visitors into a frenzy, then the Eagles went into penalty killing mode, holding the ball at the perimeter and penetrating periodically to add to the tally. Jake Hiebert socked in a nice runner in the paint and Miguel Ballesta dropped in a finesse baseline 8 footer to leave the contest at 25-39.
Dylan Lindeman finished with 8, Jerah Schmidt scored 6 with two outstanding treys, Jake Hagewood 5, and each of Skylar Wuest, Drew Lindeman, and Miguel Ballesta put up 2. Goessel will face Central Christian on Friday. Central defeated Elyria on Monday night.
-Karl Brubaker
