Guys - Elyria February 6th
Goessel Guys Basketball – Elyria Christian @ Goessel – February 6, 2024
FanDuel didn’t attract many willing to bet on the Bluebirds tonight. The odds looked daunting v. the 16-1 #2 State ranked (1A Div II-Kansas Basketball Coaches Association) Eagles, who look like a team that will be hard to beat in 1A Div II. Goessel had lost to the Eagles on Dec. 8 67-19, so tonight’s 66-19 score showed improvement, for those looking at the glass half full.
Elyria has at least three quality long-distance shooters in Unruh, Romero and Huxman and up and down the roster have wingspans that allow no room for 2nd chances on the boards or passing miscues. Goessel was able to tie it up once on a trey from Noah Schrag so long, the referees had to consult a rule book and discovered that it did count even though it was from another time zone. 3-3. A barrage of incredible nothing but net long balls left it at 3-18 after one. At 1:57 Koy Smith set and delivered somewhere from east of the sign made from rock slabs at the bank, leaving it at 7-31 and the 5-19 second quarter ended the half at 8-37. Goessel had mustered just the two field goals in the half against debilitating defense.
Noah had the drive of the contest at 6:04 and at 5 minutes Smith buried another long trey, this one so spectacular it caused Brooklyn to spontaneously do a series of flips. 13-46. Goessel went 1 for 2 from the line three times in the waning moments of the 8-23 3rd quarter. The FanDuel crowd waited with bated breath to identify whether the Bluebirds would cover the 19 point over/under target. It was 16-60 after three. Elyria brought in its bench in the 4th and Goessel cleared the bench at 6:12. At 4:45, Chevy Gagnon brought the Bluebirds to 19-60 with a gorgeous launch deep in the Southeast corner that caught not only the opponents off guard, teammates were seen asking “did that just happen?” This one ended in running clock at (4th quarter 3-6) 19-66. This final was an improvement of 1 point over the December score against this same Eagle squad.
Koy Smith led the Blue tonight with 7 and Noah Schrag finished with 6 in a contest where everything was earned. Coach Guhr praised each team member for fighting hard, giving it all they had, and indicated that Elyria had to work hard for this one, despite the score. Chevy Gagnon finished with 4 and Wade Spurlin notched 2 points for the Bluebirds. Contributing at both ends tonight were: Jake Flaming and Jack Nickel. Also in for the Bluebirds in the 4th quarter were: Trey Gaddis, Levi Schrag, Evan Walker, and Adam Wonser. Goessel moves to 7-8 with the loss; the Bluebirds have tough contests coming up with Canton-Galva and Classical as well as games with Herington, Udall and Central Christian Academy to finish out the season. Sub-state is in Solomon beginning February 22.
-Karl Brubaker
