North Callaway earns three all-conference medalists at Eastern Missouri Conference cross country meet

North Callaway had three runners earn medals on its home course.

Three North Callaway kids earned all-conference medals at the Eastern Missouri Conference meet at North Callaway in Kingdom City. In the girls 5,000 meters, Pressley Schmauch had the best finish in third place with a time of 20:28 and Grace Rasmussen followed in seventh with a 22:55, and Tristan Young finished 10th for the boys with a time of 18:11.

Schmauch and Rasmussen were each first-team runners for finishing in the top seven while Young was second-time for placing in the eighth-to-15th-place range.

Montgomery County won the girls conference title and had the individual champion time of 19:56 set by Malia Rodgers. Bowling Green won the boys title and had the individual champion Ben Chance with his time of 15:25.

North Callaway without offensive answers in 26-6 loss at Montgomery County

North Callaway was able to adjust defensively on Friday, but offense remains a mystery.

The Thunderbirds lost their third straight game after being defeated 26-6 by Eastern Missouri Conference foe Montgomery County. North Callaway held Montgomery to six points in the second half but finished with 117 yards on offense.

Head coach Kevin O’Neal said North Callaway (2-6, 1-5 EMO) has been facing a lot of aggressive defenses this season so the offense needs to adjust to the added pressure and defenders in the box.

“We were facing another aggressive defense,” O’Neal said. “They were reading their keys and flying around. We have to execute every play in order to move the ball. It’s some of the same struggles we’ve had earlier the year of not being able to finish drives and we had some penalties that backed us up that we couldn’t recover from.”

This “perfect storm” didn’t help as North Callaway has started freshman quarterback Coltyn O’Neal for two straight weeks, and he had to throw more against Montgomery (6-2, 5-1 EMO). The Thunderbirds finished with 39 rushing yards on 33 carries so O’Neal went 12-for-27 passing for 78 yards, a passing touchdown to Cashton Holloway and four interceptions.

O’Neal made some more “freshman mistakes” and was took some big hits as North Callaway tried to sort through its passing game, Kevin O’Neal said.

“In the passing game, we have to get the ball off quick,” Kevin O’Neal said. “Sometimes, the reads weren’t exactly right. If we held the ball too long, they were getting to the quarterback.”

North Callaway’s defensive line put pressure on quarterback Jace Ellis as the Thunderbirds bounced back defensively from trailing 20-6 at halftime. Jaiden Galbreath and Landon Oney finished with five tackles and four tackles, respectively, and each had a sack. In the secondary, Lane Kimbley had two interceptions of Ellis, who finished with 14-for-30 passing with 233 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

“Coach (Ronnie) Kimbley did a great job of making some adjustments because we gave some big plays in the first half – some deep pass plays,” O’Neal said.

North Callaway wraps up the regular season at 7 p.m. Friday at Class 2 No. 5 Bowling Green (8-0, 6-0 EMO).