Sports Roundup: Jan. 22

• Kaila Carpenter

Kaila Carpenter competes for the Two Harbors Nordic ski team at the Marshall Sprints. Submitted photo

Talk about it

Members of the Two Harbors football team, along with the student council will be raising funds next week to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Head football coach Tom Nelson said there will be collections in each homeroom at the high school for the fund (they will also be collected at Minnehaha Elementary). He said collection efforts will also take place at home sporting events during the week.

“Local businesses will also be approached to have collection jars,” Nelson said.

Haiti has more in common with us than you might think.

“Haiti is a nation of nine million people, living in an area the size of St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties in northeast Minnesota, and this nation lacks the most basic services necessary to recover from a disaster of this magnitude,” Rep. Jim Oberstar said last week.

Death toll estimates from the earthquake are between 50,000 and 200,000 people.

TH Nordic skiing

The Two Harbors Nordic ski team had a strong showing at the Marshall Sprints last Friday, even though no team member qualified for the final round of the heats.

“We had a great day,” said head coach Sara Byrns. “It was a beautiful sunny day and the trail was fast.”

During the event, skiers compete in different heats and must place in a particular spot to move on.

Kaila Carpenter, Kiersten Haaversen, Sonja Peterson and Charlotte Montgomery all qualified on the girl’s side for the quarterfinal heat, while Aaron Holbeck almost made the cut for they boys (he finished No. 33 when the top 30 qualify).

Carpenter did make the semifinals, but missed out on the final round.

“Those who didn’t qualify for the sprint quarter finals went on to race in the consolation 3K,” Byrns said.

Mercedes Leininger was the top girls finisher at No. 9 while Holbeck finished tops for the boys at No. 8.

SB girls basketball

Silver Bay won its first game of the season last Thursday defeating Fond du Lac Ojibwe 55-26.

“Everybody played better than normal,” said head coach Larry Otterblad.

The Mariners came out hot outscoring Fond du Lac by 16 in the first. They also cruised in the second half winning that by 13.

The Mariners Katrina Davis looked unstoppable pouring in 30 points. Allana Lampton scored eight in the game with 11 rebounds while her sister Leigh had six points with 18 boards. Alicia Nopola also had 12 rebounds for the Mariners.

The team’s game against Floodwood Saturday was cancelled due to a water main break near the school. It has been rescheduled for Feb. 27. A game-time was not available.

On Tuesday, the Mariners fell to Orr 92-22.

“They are a very, very fast team,” Otterblad said.

Allana Lampton had six points with seven rebounds while Leigh had four points with six boards.

SB boys basketball

The Mariners defeated Fond du Lac Ojibwe 70-63 last Thursday.

Fond du Lac held a four-point lead going into the half, but the Mariners came back to win after outscoring their opponent by 11 in the second.

Henry Mitchell led the Mariners with 26 points, eight rebounds and four steals, while Luke Thun put in 15 with eight boards and eight assists. Kyle Blood scored 13 with seven rebounds and three steals, while Ryan Blood had 12 points and five boards.

The team’s game against Floodwood Saturday was cancelled due to a water main break near the school. It has been rescheduled for Feb. 27. A game-time was not available.

On Tuesday, the Mariners lost to Orr 72-49.

Mitchell led the team with 13 points. Sam Otterblad scored 10 with four rebounds and Thun had 10 points, four rebounds and four assists.

TH girls basketball

The Agates have split two games over the last week.

“Offensively, we are doing a better job of getting the ball inside to our posts, which in turns seems to open up good outside shots for our guards,” said head coach Brooke Chaffee. “We are getting back to the driving and dishing, and inside-out plays … these really help keep our guards in the game offensively. We are just finally working cohesively as a team again, and our goal is to get ourselves back to .500 by the end of the week so we can start fresh going into playoffs.”

The Agates fell to Hermantown 55-42 Monday.

The Agates held the lead by one going into the second half. The game was a different story in the second as Hermantown defeated Two Harbors by 14 in that half.

Abby Ray led the team with 16 points while Sierra Tietge had eight and Nina Bukowski put in six.

On Tuesday, the Agates pounded AlBrook 53-36.

“I thought we played really aggressive defense and that gave us momentum on the offensive end,” Chaffee said. “We do need to work on taking better care of the ball and convert those steals into baskets.”

Ray had 23 points for the Agates with eight rebounds and two blocks. Katelyn Adams had nine points and Bukowski scored six with five boards and five assists.

TH boys basketball

The Agates got blown out by Hermantown 85-40 last Thursday.

The Hawks came out soaring taking a 25-point lead out of the first half. It was much the same in the second, as Hermantown won that by 20. Jon McDannold led the team with 13 points while Jon Nevala-Plagemann, Chad Brelie and Caleb Hamp-Sill each put in six.

Last Friday, the Agates lost to Barnum 68-48.

The Bombers took an 11-point lead into the half and never looked back, winning the second half by nine

Plagemann led the team with 12 points while Sill put in 11 and Ryan Guentzel had nine.

TH hockey

The Agates lost to Detroit Lakes 10-3 last Friday.

“A lot of the good things we do are overshadowed by the bad,” said senior captain Scott Comrie. “We’re in a good position to breakout … sometimes we are physically and skillfully outmatched.”

Detroit Lakes took an early 2-0 lead in the first before Jake Homick (Matt McDannold and Comrie) lit the lamp for Two Harbors at 10:48. The Lakers followed that with four more goals of their own to close out the period with a 6-1 lead.

In the second the Agates mustered a tie with the Lakers 1-1. Homick (Comrie) once again scored for the Agates at 0:32.

Detroit Lakes put in two more goals in the third before the Agates’ Comrie could put one more in at 9:22. The Lakers scored once more after that to close out the game.

Aaron Lee had 38 saves for Two Harbors.

The Agates fell to Virginia-Mountain Iron-Buhl 12-0 Tuesday.

“They had so much puck control,” Comrie said.

Virginia came out hot scoring three in the first. That was followed up by three in the second and six in the third.

Lee had 61 saves for the Agates. Two Harbors only had six shots on goal.

SB hockey

The Silver Bay/Cook County Mariners suffered another couple of losses on the ice last week. They fell 6-2 to Eveleth-Gilbert at Hoyt Lakes and got run over by a train as Detroit Lakes beat them 12-0.

At Hoyt Lakes the boys were a little short-handed as two starters were out due to illness and another was injured during the game. The first period ended up scoreless and was one of the best played by the Mariners defensively all season. They continuously cleared their zone, cleared the puck in front of their net and eliminated odd-man rushes and breakaways.

The Mariners struck first via one of their two power-play goals. Cody Larson scored on a backhand that never left the ice with assists from Tyson Fultz and Shane Billings as they worked the puck around very well. Cole Jackson tied it up three minutes later for the Golden Bears on a one-timer and a power-play goal from Dalton Johnson gave them a 2-1 lead after two periods of play.

Chase Jackson made it 3-1 at 4:23 of the third and a score from Cole Axelson at 11:04 made it 4-1. Izaak Reinhold and Drew Holmen set up Warren Carter for a goal that cut it to 4-2, only to see a breakaway via a long pass and a goal with one second left making the final score 6-2. Darryl Hansen finished the game with 32 saves for the Mariners and Logan Koskela had seven stops for the Golden Bears.

Detroit Lakes got the game-winning goal 2:54 into the contest and had five in the first and six in the second. Tanner Lane and Alex Phelps each had a hat trick and two assists for the Lakers. Hansen stopped 32 shots and Sam Andrus had two saves in his varsity debut. Andrew Friesen had 11 saves for the Lakers.

Girls hockey

The Silver Bay/Two Harbors/Cook County Mariners lost another couple of games each in a way that has pretty much demonstrated what has gone wrong with their season. Against Moose Lake they fell 4-3 in overtime in a battle of bounces that once again went against them. Against the St. Cloud Icebreakers they lost 2-0 in a contest where they were in it all the way but couldn’t generate much offense.

Moose Lake scored the only goal of the first period when a pass from behind the net somehow bounced off the goaltender and up and over her and into the net. On a very similar play in period two, the puck failed to go into the net for the Mariners, but they were able to tie it at one when Kirstin Sandstrom went coast-to-coast and scored an unassisted goal. Shortly after, Taylor Udenberg was hauled down while going to the net with no call. Then the Rebels retook the lead on Jackie Granfors’ second goal of the game. Before the period ended, Marina Carter crashed the net and scored via backhand to send the contest into the third period tied at two.

The Mariner’s finally got a bounce to go their way in the final period of play when a shot from the neutral zone by Jessica Solberg was tipped in by Natalie Krynski. Rebel goaltender, K.K. Greene misplayed the puck and saw it bounce off one pipe and follow the goal line across to the other pipe where it barely went across. Just when things seemed good again, another bounce went against the Bay when net-minder Nikki Mealey came out to confront the puck carrier Georgia Ryan and saw her lob the puck up where it just barely went above her outstretched catcher and barely went under the crossbar for a tie game.

Twenty-six seconds into overtime, with the Rebels still on a power play, a rebound bounced right onto the stick of Kim Ergen who had nothing but open net in front of her and she scored to end the game. Mealey finished the game with 32 saves. The final tally of the bounces was three for Moose Lake for three goals and two for the Mariners for one goal.

St. Cloud scored late in the second period on a goal by Zayda Ewing for the first score of the game and what proved to be the game-winner. After Katie Haus made it 2-0 for the Icebreakers at 12:28 of period three, the Mariners took two penalties in the final three minutes of play to pretty much end any chance of a comeback. You take away the two goals and you could probably count the game’s great scoring chances on one hand with fingers left over, as much of the play was in the neutral zone. Mealey finished with 25 stops.

The Mariners fell to Eveleth-Gilbert once again in their rematch Tuesday; once more by a margin of six goals by a score of 9-3. The Mariners trailed 1-0 after one period of play, but scored twice in the first 1:47 of period two to go ahead 2-1 on goals by Krynski and Rebecca Dilley.

Their defensive play wasn’t up to par and they ended the period down by a score of 6-3, with Taylor Guzzo picking up the other Mariner goal.

Kayla Moe picked up a hat trick for the Golden Bears and Amanda Arbogast and Brittney Maki each scored twice as the Bears outshot the Mariners 39-23 in the contest.

Tags: two harbors, schools, sports, basketball, hockey, skiing, haiti