Goessel Girls Fall to Elyria
Goessel Girls Varsity Basketball Elyria Christian @ Goessel February 4, 2020
Goessel’s girls could not get past the din of politics happening around the nation tonight. The noise from the various national activities seemed at times to cause passers to take leave of their normal senses, with the ball delivered right into defensive hands too many times to count. The Bluebirds were up 1-0 but quickly things went south and the home team was down by as much as 16 before recovering slightly at the end 21-32.
Bethany Herrel caught a nice in-pass to score out of a Goessel timeout at 4:59, but that would be the only Goessel field goal until 7:45 in the 2nd half (Herrel again). Lizzie Schmucker hit Herrel underneath with a dazzling no-look Mahomes like pass, and Herrel hit one of two. The quarter ended 4-13 with the Eagles hitting on all cylinders.
In the 2nd quarter, the Bluebirds put up one of their best free throw shooting exhibitions of the season, hitting 7 of 8! Liz Alderfer canned two, Kaleigh Guhr bagged two more in the 1-1 to close to 8-14, then Lizzie Schmucker smacked down 2 more charities to close to 10-14, giving fans hope that this one might right itself. In the mean time the visitors were going 1 for 7 in the quarter from the line. To close the half Riley Graber got to the line and hit the first of two, but couldn’t put down the 2nd or it would have been an unheard of perfect quarter from the line. The half ended 11-16.
Fans erupted in applause as Herrel came out and dropped a nice finish in at 7:45, but the rest of the 3rd was all Elyria, as the Eagles skated 4-11 to leave it at 15-27 after three. A highlight moment was Riley taking a charge.
The Eagles beat Bluebird defenders time and time again in weak side one on one drives. At exactly 5 minutes left in the contest, Sarah Spurlin launched one from beyond the ESPN announcers booth to pull within 13, 19-32.
In a surprise appearance, announcer Joe Buck was seen making an appearance at the Goessel game, apparently on rehabilitation assignment in Kansas so that he can learn to say something nice about Kansas cities. After the cheer team’s G O E S S E L intersecting arms routine, Schmucker hit Herrel with a very nice long pass, she converted the layup and was fouled . Herrel fouled out a moment later at :50. The game ended 21-32.
The Bluebirds won quarter two and quarter four, but the 4-13 first quarter and 4-11 third quarter proved their undoing. Schmucker led Bluebird scorers with 9, Herrel had 4 and Spurlin put up 3. Guhr and Alderfer each notched 2 and Graber scored 1. Also in for the Bluebirds were: Emily Flaming, Porclein Unruh, Lyna McCombs and Rachael Zogleman.
Karl Brubaker
