North Callaway offense stalls, Van-Far too quick in Thunderbirds’ 28-14 loss

There was too much stopping for North Callaway and too much going for Van-Far on Friday.

North Callaway at Van-Far Photo Gallery

The Thunderbirds lost 28-14 at Eastern Missouri Conference foe Van-Far for the program’s first defeat to the Indians since 2003. Van-Far ran for 264 yards compared to North Callaway’s 153 yards on the ground.

A bulk of Van-Far’s offensive yards came from its all-conference and all-district players Gage Gibson and Nikos Connaway. Gibson totaled 203 yards, including 138 rushing yards, and two touchdowns, Connaway had 126 yards and two touchdowns, and the Indians (2-4, 1-4 EMO) threw one more quick player, Gaven Gaston, at North Callaway (2-4, 1-3 EMO) in the first quarter on a 62-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to make it 12-6 Van-Far and immediately respond to a Thunderbird scoring drive. Head coach Kevin O’Neal said it’s obvious to watch out for those players but hard to contain.

“Defensively, we didn’t do a very good job of stopping them on the edge,” O’Neal said. “They did a good job of attacking our edge and changing their looks up. If we don’t play disciplined football, they’re going to expose it and they did.”

While Van-Far was able to jump ahead 28-6 early in the fourth quarter, North Callaway struggled to sustain drives much like O’Neal said has been the case all season. This time, penalties took the steam out of the Thunderbirds as they had several procedure penalties and had a personal foul call on defense that extended a Van-Far drive until it resulted in a touchdown.

“It’s a focus and execution thing,” O’Neal said. “When you’re not focusing and you’re not executing, penalties tend to come along with that.”

Tucker Wright led North Callaway on offense with 62 yards on 10 carries, scoring a touchdown on a 15-yard run in the fourth quarter. Kyle Pennell had the Thunderbirds’ first touchdown in the first quarter and had 32 yards on four carries.

The Thunderbird backfield didn’t have much opportunity to work as North Callaway took more shots down the field with its quarterbacks. This resulted in three interceptions spread between senior and first-year quarterback Lane Kimbley and freshman Coltyn O’Neal, who took over in the second half. In his biggest varsity outing so far, O’Neal finished with 84 yards on 7-for-15 passing and led the offense to a touchdown on his first drive but had two interceptions.

“He’s got a lot of learning to do,” O’Neal said. “He came in and did what he could.”

The Thunderbird defense was able to record more negative plays in the second half and recovered two fumbles in the game. David Sapp fell on both fumbles and finished with four tackles and a tackle for loss. Riley Humphrey had eight tackles and a tackle for loss, and Landon Oney followed with seven tackles,

“At times, we can play very well,” O’Neal said. “Our front can be strong and I expected our front to lead us this year. When they don’t play well, we don’t do well. That goes offensively and defensively. We showed some promises on a couple drives offensively and a couple stops defensively, but we’re just not consistent enough to win games right now.”

North Callaway hosts Eastern Missouri Conference foe Wright City (4-2, 3-1 EMO) at 7 p.m. Friday.

North Callaway softball ends Centralia Tournament with 8-7 walk-off  loss to Smith-Cotton, liked team look all day

Smith-Cotton had the final hit in North Callaway softball’s second loss on Saturday.

North Callaway at Centralia Invitational Photo Gallery

The Class 2 Ladybirds led the Class 5 Lady Tigers 7-3 after the third inning in the fifth-place game of the Centralia Invitational Tournament but ultimately lost on a walk-off single in the seventh inning, when the 90-minute tournament game time limit triggered the leadoff runner rule. In the innings after the Ladybirds scored all seven of their runs in the third inning, they left four runners on base and couldn’t take advantage of the free runner first as the road team.

Head coach Mariah McKee said North Callaway (14-12) had plenty of hits in its three games, losing to second-place team Kirksville 11-4, beating Hannibal 13-5 on 13 hits and then finishing with 10 hits in the loss to Smith-Cotton (15-10). The problem was the Ladybirds couldn’t string enough together to prevent falling short of the consolation trophy.

“We couldn’t quite string them together, but we’ve been hitting the ball well all day,” McKee said. “I was just hoping we’d be able to string something together there, but those pitchers (Rylie Nations and Mia Ross, who combined for zero earned runs allowed) did a good job of mixing things up.”

In North Callaway’s big inning, Brianna Prosser, Corynne Miller and Megan Schmidt had hard hits, with Prosser and Schmidt scoring runs via their hits. The first Ladybird runs crossed after Liv Knoepflein teed off on a pitch. It was literally as if she was hitting off a golf tee as she reached down and put the ball in the outfield to pick up two RBI.

“She hit that thing hard,” McKee said. “I don’t know how she did it, but she did it. It was a great hit. It put us in running and scoring positions, and she did a great job of making contact with the ball and doing what she can with a ball.”

Knoepflein pitched her third inning of the day after throwing two against Kirksville in North Callaway’s first game. That outing also followed the freshman Schmidt, who lasted three innings against Kirksville. Schmidt was able to pitch 5⅓ innings against Smith-Cotton after allowing two home runs to cut North Callaway’s lead to 7-6. 

Still, Schmidt struck out nine batters to add to her total of 12 punchouts through a little more than eight innings during the tournament.

“She did great in the circle,” McKee said. “She had pitched the first game so she was getting tired so we did what we could to keep her arm fresh. They were timing her so we just switched it up.”

Schmidt finished 3-for-8 with five RBI through three games, Knoepflein was 5-for-9 with three RBI and Ella Slater finished with six RBI to lead the team. Five of those RBI happening in the decisive win against Class 4 Hannibal as she hit a three-RBI home run and also a two-RBI double.

Saturday has been Slater’s day recently as she had another five-RBI game the week prior in a 14-1 win against Class 3 Moberly. Slater finished 4-fo-4 and had a grand slam in the first inning.

“She hit the ball hard today,” McKee said. “Anytime she can hit a three-run home run or anything like that, she is having a good day. She is really seeing the ball well right now.”

North Callaway (4-3 EMO) went back to Centralia (16-7) for a regular season game on Monday before wrapping up the regular season with home games against Eastern Missouri Conference foes Mark Twain (6-11, 2-5 EMO) and Class 2 No. 3 Bowling Green (13-5, 7-0 EMO) at 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.

Ladybirds unable to string together hits in 14-7 loss at Centralia

The hits were numerous for both North Callaway and Centralia on Monday, but Centralia still won by a wide margin.

The Lady Panthers defeated North Callaway 14-7, collecting 16 singles compared to the Ladybirds’ 14 hits. North Callaway (14-13) had four extra-base hits, including Abigail Schmidt’s first home run of the year. Centralia (17-7) had five finish with multiple RBI including three each from Tilly Fox and Cora King and two each from Madi Johnson, Ellie Page and Kaaelyn Walters.

North Callaway put four runs on the scoreboard in the first inning after just hitting the ball on the ground via groundouts and an error. Centralia responded with runs in all of the first four innings and especially with eight runs in the third inning. 

The Lady Panthers strung five singles together early in the third inning and then came back with four consecutive singles later in the inning for an 11-5 lead.

For Centralia, Johnson, Walters and Olivia Adams each finished 3-for-4, and King, Page and Kassena Ridgel each went 2-for-4. Walters allowed four earned runs and four walks to go with four strikeouts in seven innings.

For North Callaway, Kymorie Myers went 2-for-3 and recorded her 41st RBI in her 27th game, and Liv Knoepflein went 2-for-4 with two RBI.

North Callaway (4-3 EMO) hosted Eastern Missouri Conference foe Mark Twain (7-11, 1-5 EMO) at 5 p.m. Tuesday on Senior Night.

Ladybirds volleyball finishes second in Calvary Lutheran Tournament second straight year

North Callaway finished Saturday 1-1-1 at the Calvary Lutheran Tournament.

The Ladybirds earned second place in the Jefferson City tournament for the second straight year. They defeated New Bloomfield 2-0, tied Calvary Lutheran 1-1 and lost 2-1 to Dixon to move to a 5-12-1 record.

North Callaway played at Brookfield (0-14) on Monday and hosted district foe Linn (5-6) on Wednesday before playing its Senior Night match at 6 p.m. Thursday against New Bloomfield (0-12-1). Senior recognition is between the junior varsity and varsity matches.