By Staff

            ELYRIA – On Friday the Elyria Christian boys traveled to Centre where they rolled over and past the home team in earning a final 34-point, 55-21 victory.

            Now 8-2 for the season, the Eagles will begin play on Tuesday at Centre Cougar Classic Tournament when they play Marion.

            “It was good to put together a solid outing before tournament week,” said Eagle head coach Zach Goodrich. “We are slowly putting all the pieces together, and figuring out both offensively and defensively how to help each other out.”

            After Elyria jumped out to an eight-point, 19-11 lead by the end of the first quarter, the Eagles increased their advantage to 23 points at 37-14 when the two teams headed to the halftime break. Coming out of the break the Eagles pushed the lead out to 31 at 50 -19 before cruising in for the final 34 point win.

            Johnny Unruh hit on six three-pointers on his way to leading the Eagles in scoring with 21 points while Ty Romero just missed a double-double as he scored 12 points and pulled down a team high nine rebounds. Despite not scoring in the game, Caleb Laney led the team in steals on defense with five and James Schott directed the offense with five assists.

            Speaking of some of his players, coach Goodrich noted, “Johnny Unruh was firing on all cylinders early, and put together a good game on both ends of the floor. He was active defensively, getting a lot of deflections and providing great help throughout the contest. Caleb Laney had one of his best games of the season, taking a charge and setting up his teammates for open looks. He also did a great job communicating on the defensive end and getting the team into actions on the offensive side of the ball as well. Ty Romero had a solid game on the defensive end, grabbing eight defensive rebounds. Ty has the ability to impact the game in many ways, and we are hoping he will continue to add this to our team. James Schott was solid for us by dishing out assists and really did a fantastic job finding the open man in our half-court offense. Landon Schneider continues to be a solid anchor for us defensively and takes on the task of guarding big interior opponents and providing strength for us inside the paint.”

            Goodrich then concluded his reflections on the game by adding, “Overall, I was really proud of the effort this group brought to the contest because we have to continue to get better each week. This was a big step forward and we are hoping it will continue starting on Tuesday with a solid opponent in Marion. They will provide us a challenge we need to improve going against, and we will see if we answer the call.”

ELYRIA CHRISTIAN EAGLES at Centre

SCORING: EAGLES > 19-18-13-5 = 55; Centre > 11-3-5-2 = 21.

TEAM STATS: EAGLES > 2-FGs – 9/19; 3-PTs – 8/18; FTs – 13/14; AST – 11; REBs – 26; TO – 9; STLs – 11; BLKs – 1; FLs – 11.  Centre > 2-FGs – 8/22; 3-PTs – 1/15; FTs – 2/9; AST – 2; REBs – 26; TO – 15; STLs – 2; BLKs – 2; FLs – 13.

EAGLES INDIVIDUAL STATE LEADERS: Scoring > Johnny Unruh – 21; Ty Romero – 11; Alex Robertson – 8; Landon Schneider – 7; Silas Redenbaugh – 4; Axton Fields – 3.  3-Pointers Made > Unruh – 6; Romero, A. Robertson – 1.  Assists > James Schott – 5; Caleb Laney – 2.  Rebounds > Ty Romero – 9; Silas Redenbaugh – 3; Unruh, Schneider, Schott, Blake Robertson – 2.  Steals > Laney – 5; Unruh, Romero – 2.  Blocked Shots – Romero – 1.

(The Staff covering McPherson County Activities can be reached by email at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)