High School Football
WACO will travel to Iowa Valley on Friday, September 6th, at 7 pm for their first district game of the season.
Fairfield will stay at home to take on Fort Madison on Friday at 7:30 pm.
Mt. Pleasant will have their home opener on Friday against West Burlington/Notre Dame at 7:30 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 7:15 pm.
Danville will travel to take on Highland on Friday at 7 pm.
New London will square off against Winfield-Mt. Union on Friday at 7 pm on the road.
Van Buren County will face off against Pekin on Friday at 7 pm on the road.
Central Lee will travel to Cardinal on Friday at 7 pm.
Mediapolis will compete against Sigourney-Keota on Friday at 7 pm at home.
Columbus will look to get back on track against Wapello on Friday at 7 pm at home.
High School Volleyball
The Southeast Conference (SEC) opened up their conference play last night with the visiting teams spoiling home openers. Keokuk made the trip to Mt. Pleasant last night and after taking a back-and-forth set one 25-22, the Chiefs dominated in set two to the tune of a 25-12 victory as Keokuk’s Camryn Atterberg had nine kills through two sets.
The tide changed in the third set as Mt. Pleasant outscored Keokuk 11 to 2 down the final stretch to force a fourth set. Again, the Panthers shook off a rough start to lead 20-14 late in the set; however, Atterberg continued her dominance with a couple of kills and an ace, helping the Chiefs go on a 9 to 0 run. Nevertheless, Addison Peck helped seal the fourth set with an ace to send the game to a fifth set.
Unfortunately, the Panthers ran out of steam as the Chiefs cruised to a 15-4 final to win the match 3-2. Alex Scott led Mt. Pleasant with 14 kills followed by Addison Clark with 10, while Sonya Simon had five aces. Atterberg finished the night with 17 kills, three aces, and seven blocks (six solo). Despite the loss, Panthers head coach Logan Wall saw some positives to build upon for the rest of the season,
“I think we just capitalized on some of the open spots on the other court. #7 had a great game, so we were trying to avoid her as much as possible. So, we’ll know that for next time. I know my girls showed a lot of grit and a lot of toughness and I haven’t seen that in Panther volleyball for a long time. So, I’m just proud of how they came back.”
Mt. Pleasant will host Albia tomorrow, September 5th, at 7 pm.
Washington crunched Fort Madison on the road with a sweep.
Wapello hosted their invite last night and here’s how our local teams fared. Central Lee split their games, falling to Burlington Notre Dame in close sets (25-19 and 27-25) and Wilton (21-14 and 21-8), while defeating Holy Trinity Catholic (21-11 and 21-16) and Columbus (21-16 and 21-17) in straight sets. The Hawks had 16 aces between their two wins with Taylor Jones notching four against the Crusaders and Kenna Sandoval tallying eight between the two games.
Holy Trinity Catholic picked up a victory against Columbus handily, 21-9 in both sets, but also fell to Wilton 21-14 and 22-20.
Burlington Notre Dame dominated most of their competition as the Nikes claimed third place at the invitational, with their only loss coming against Mediapolis in a third set 15-8 final. The Nikes defeated Wapello in straight sets to claim the bronze.
Lastly, Mediapolis gutted out another victory over Wapello with a 15-10 final in the third set before sweeping English Valleys 21-11 and 21-8, leading to a matchup against Wilton for the championship; unfortunately, the Beavers proved to be too much, putting away the Bulldogs 25-15 and 25-10 in two sets. Bryn Wright finished with 58 assists and three aces for the invite with Ellah Wagenbach notching 33 kills in their four games.
Mediapolis will travel to Washington tomorrow at 7 pm.
Danville will compete in a tournament at Burlington Notre Dame on Saturday, September 7th.
Central Lee will square off against Keokuk tomorrow at 7:15 pm on the road.
Holy Trinity Catholic will look to right the ship on September 10th against Danville at 7:30 pm on the road.
Winfield-Mt. Union swept Louisa-Muscatine last night with two dominating set wins 25-14 and 25-11 and snuck their way to a 26-24 win in set three. Kellee Milks led the team with 10 kills, while Madiesen Kellogg dished out 25 assists, and Kaelyn Townsley notched five aces in the win. The Wolves will participate in a quad at Lisbon tomorrow.
WACO will face off against Cardinal tomorrow at 5:30 pm at WACO in the first game of a quad with New London and Fairfield making the trip.
Van Buren County will participate in a tournament tomorrow at 4:30 pm at Pella Christian.
High School Cross Country
Van Buren County, Danville, New London, and Fairfield will travel to Ottumwa to compete in a meet tomorrow, September 5th, at 5:30 pm.
Mt. Pleasant, Burlington Notre Dame, Central Lee, Holy Trinity Catholic, and WACO will run at Elks Fairview Golf Course in Keokuk tomorrow at 4:30 pm.
Southeastern Community College
The volleyball team will hit the road to take on Southwestern Community College tonight at 7 pm.
College Football
#21 Iowa is set to host this year’s rendition of the Cy-Hawk Series on Saturday, September 7th, at 2:30 pm. The Iowa broadcast will be on 105.5 FM and the Iowa State broadcast will be on 98.5 FM and AM 1130.
University of Northern Iowa’s Blake Anderson was awarded the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s Offensive Lineman of the Week as he helped pave the way for the Panthers to rush the ball for 365 yards in their win over Valparaiso. The Panthers will face off against St. Thomas on Saturday at 1 pm on the road.
This Day in Sports History
1937 – 15-year-old cyclist Doris Kopsky becomes the first Amateur Bicycle League of America women’s national champion in 4:22.4 in Buffalo, NY.
1950 – NASCAR’s first paved super speedway, Darlington Raceway hosted the Southern 500, first 500-mile event in NASCAR history; the winner was Johnny Mantz in a Plymouth.
1994 – Tom Tupa scores the first 2-point conversion in NFL history, running in a fake extra point attempt for the Cleveland Browns in a 28-20 win at Cincinnati.