North Callaway’s Schmauch among top runners in Bowling Green

North Callaway’s Pressley Schmauch wants to run at the state cross country meet for the fourth time in as many years.

Before going for state qualification at 10:15 a.m. — boys race at 9:30 a.m. — Saturday morning at South Callaway, Schmauch finished 12th out of 118 runners at the Bowling Green Invite on Friday with a time of 21:10 to earn a medal.

Grace Rasmussen was North Callaway’s next best finisher with a 54th-place time of 24:49. Emerson Reinhard had the best finish for the North Callaway boys in 140th out of 167 runners with a time of 22:42.

Father Tolton won the boys and girls team title with 63 points and 31 points, respectively, and had the top individual girls runner in Elyse Wilmes with a winning time of 18:13. Bowling Green’s Ben Chance won the boys race with a time of 16:04.

North Callaway play, roster incomplete in 73-8 loss at Bowling Green

North Callaway didn’t play anywhere near its best on Friday night.

The Thunderbirds had offensive struggles in the form of eight turnovers and added more to their injured list in a 73-8 loss at Eastern Missouri Conference champion and Class 2 No. 5 Bowling Green (9-0, 7-0 EMO). The Bobcats finished the regular season undefeated for the third straight year, rushing for 289 yards and six touchdowns against North Callaway (2-7, 1-6 EMO).

Head coach Kevin O’Neal said teams have had to play “a perfect game” against Bowling Green in recent years to compete, and the Thunderbirds were at a disadvantage going into the game with injuries to Cooper Wortmann and Riley Humphrey. That disadvantage grew as Tucker Wright, Cashton Holloway and Coltyn O’Neal all left due to injury.

“Everything stacked up,” O’Neal said. “We didn’t execute, and against a very good team like Bowling Green, it’s going to go bad fast.”

Bowling Green had a 32-0 lead after the first quarter and then dropped the rest of its points in the second quarter. Four North Callaway offensive drives in the first half ended without a turnover – which were two punts, a turnover on downs and time running out in the first half – and the Thunderbirds finished with -15 yards rushing.

O’Neal said North Callaway was put into third- and fourth-and-long situations and then had to force passes down the field, which led to interceptions. The Thunderbirds had six interceptions, with two of them being returned for touchdowns and one of them being the play that forced the freshman quarterback O’Neal out of the game after he was hit.

“They are just a physical team,” O’Neal said. “You’ve got to play fast and you’ve got to get after it, and if you don’t, they’re going to make you pay for it.”

Lane Kimbley threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Collin Moore in the fourth quarter for North Callaway’s only points.

O’Neal said he believes “most of them, if not all” of the injured should be back for Friday’s district game in Mokane. North Callaway has the No. 6 seed and faces usual Callaway Cup adversary and No. 3 seed South Callaway (6-3), who the Thunderbirds lost to 20-6 this season.

“South Callaway has improved throughout the year as they got a big win (44-15 on Friday) against a good Montgomery County team,” O’Neal said. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us. We need to have a great week of practice as we haven’t had very good practices lately.”