Mt. Pleasant Football
The Mt. Pleasant Panthers football season starts tonight on the road against the Fairfield Trojans. The Panthers are looking to avenge their 1-8 season last fall with senior quarterback Jacob Richtman leading the offense. KILJ will be on the call with Coach Bennett and I heading to Fairfield. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 pm.
High School Football
Today marks week 1 for high school football and here’s the preview of the night ahead, WACO will be at home as they clash with Springville at 7 pm. WACO made it to the Quarterfinals last fall, and they tout a very talented team this year with seniors Isaac Oswald and Simeon Reichenbach. They both showed out in the teams Week Zero matchup as Oswald tossed three touchdown passes, while Reichenbach did him one better, running for three touchdowns and receiving one.
Winfield-Mt. Union will be traveling to face off against the Moravia Mohawks with kickoff set for 7 pm. The Wolves will be leaning on Cam Buffington as he rushed for 275 yards and 5 touchdowns last Saturday in their Week Zero matchup against Audubon. The Mohawks defeated the New London Tigers last Friday in a close game, 38 to 26.
The New London Tigers originally did not have a game scheduled for this Friday as Calamus-Wheatland had to cancel their Varsity season, but the Tigers will now be traveling to play Clarksville High School this Friday. The game is scheduled for 7 pm.
Additionally, Keokuk will be defending their home turf against Fort Madison at 7:30 pm, while Washington faces off against Burlington at the same time, and Mediapolis will face off against Wapello at home.
High School Volleyball
The Mount Pleasant Freshman Volleyball team split their games yesterday in their visit to Ottumwa. In their first game against Davis County, they lost both sets, 21-17 and 21-14. But they responded by easily dispatching the host team Ottumwa, 21-9 and 21-3. The Varsity team lost both matches to Ottumwa and Davis County in straight sets. The scores against Ottumwa were 25-13 and 25-24, while the Davis County scores were 25-13 and 25-12. The next game for the Varsity will take place tomorrow as the travel to compete in the Grinnell Tournament.
Winfield-Mt. Union defeated Keokuk without much problem in 3 sets: 25-14, 25-13, and 25-17. Bradie Buffington led the Wolves in kills with 12, with Audrie Gipple and Keely Malone each added 7 kills. Malone added 27 assists to her stat line, while Lily Freeman set the pace with 3 blocks. Keetyn Townsley added 22 digs. The Freshman/Sophomore and JV teams both won their games as well. The 1-0 Wolves will compete in the West Branch tournament tomorrow.
Iowa Wesleyan Fall Sports
Volleyball and Football begin tomorrow, August 27th, for the Tigers as Volleyball will have a double header against Monmouth College and Knox College at 10:30 am and 12 pm, respectively, while the Tigers will get their football season under way against Tabor College at 1 pm. It is the first ever meeting between the two teams. The game will be broadcasted on KILJ. Head Coach, MD Daniels, talked about what he hoped to see out of his players in tomorrow’s matchup:
“I tell you what, finishing games. You know that’s one thing we talked about coming into this fall camp is finishing, you know. We were in a lot of games last year but we could never finish games. So, finishing games, extreme amount of effort and physical toughness. You know, we focused on those things this fall camp being as physical as possible. So, we try to make practice as hard as possible so that on Saturday we just go have fun.”
The Women’s soccer team home opener is, tomorrow, August 27th against St. Mary of the Woods. Last year’s Women’s team was the first Iowa Wesleyan team to make it to the postseason in their return to the NAIA.
The Men’s team lost their season opener 1-0 to St. Ambrose yesterday. A handball led to a penalty kick that gave the Fighting Bee’s their winning goal. The Tigers outshot the Fighting Bees, with Francisco Javier Saldana leading the team in shots. The Tigers next opportunity will be August 31st, when they travel to play William Penn University at 7:30 pm.
This Day in Sports History
1939 – The first televised major league baseball games were shown. The event was a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1947 – Don Bankhead became the first black pitcher in major league baseball.
1961 – The International Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto opened.