Sports Roundup: Agates top Mariners in volleyball

• Volleyball

The Two Harbors volleyball team defeated Silver Bay 3-1 Thursday. Jill Innis

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The Two Harbors volleyball team won its second match of the season, 3-1 over Silver Bay Thursday.

Two Harbors won the games by a score of 25-22, 18-25, 25-15, 25-22.

“The team has really picked it up this last week, and I am very happy with how we have been playing,” Two Harbors head coach Brooke Chaffee said. “We made some adjustments to our defense in practice last week, and I think that has cleared up a lot of coverage confusion and has made us more effective on defense.”

“It was a pretty close match,” Silver Bay head coach Tom Frericks said. He said if a few more points would have gone the Mariner’s way, the result of the match could have been different.

For the Agates, Sasha Fjeran led the team with 16 set-assists while Kaley Peterson had six blocks and Kate Morsette had 11 digs.

For the Mariners, Marina Carter had 11 kills and three ace-blocks, while Brittany Duresky had five kills and Katie Smedstad had eight kills. Taylor Guzzo had 27 set-assists in the match.

Two Harbors volleyball

The Two Harbors volleyball team hosted a tournament Saturday finishing in fifth place after a match against Proctor.

“I think we are at a point in the season where everyone has a role and knows what they need to do to fill it,” head coach Brooke Chaffee said. “I was very happy with our win in the tournament against Proctor, as we lost to them a few weeks ago.”

Cook County won the tournament over Eveleth-Gilbert while Cromwell defeated Duluth Central in the third-place game.

The Agates lost to McGregor 3-0 Tuesday.

Two Harbors is in ninth place in the Polar League going 2-15 (2-6 in the conference).

Silver Bay volleyball

The Silver Bay volleyball team lost to Esko 3-0 Tuesday

Head coach Tom Frericks said Esko has a decent chance to go to state and thought his team played well, with a goal of his team scoring at least 14 points a game – the Mariners lost 25-10, 25-18, and 25-17.

Shay Viola had four kills and 10 digs while Taylor Guzzo had 10 set-assists and eight digs.

The Mariners are currently 10th in the Polar League going 3-13 with a 1-8 conference record.

Two Harbors football

The Two Harbors football team (2-4) was blanked 65-0 by Moose Lake-Willow River Friday (6-0). The Agates are currently in fourth place in the Polar League White (0-3 in the conference).

“We are really in a difficult part of our schedule as the past couple of scores indicate,” head coach Tom Nelson said. “The kids continue to work hard and that is my biggest concern as we have to persevere through this stretch of our schedule.”

He said offensively the team struggled as they “tried to base block them, double team them, cut block them, angle block them, trap them, and scoop block them.”

Nelson said the Rebels seemed to have an answer for everything the Agates threw at them.

“Defensively we struggled against their speed and athleticism,” Nelson said.

The Rebels scored on a four-yard run to make it 7-0 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Rebels opened up the flood gates, scoring two rushing touchdowns and one in the air for a 28-0 lead at the end of the first half.

MLWR scored on 35- and 37-yard runs in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Rebels scored on 49- and 32-yard runs as well as a fumble recovery to finish off the Agates.

“The score got away from us and that was disappointing,” Nelson said. “We had quite a few players get dinged up. ... I know I am preaching the weight room non-stop, but it helps to develop the overall athlete [and] aides in injury prevention among many other benefits.”

The Agates play at Grand Rapids at 7 p.m. tonight. The next game will be at home against Duluth Marshall at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

“We need to play significantly better in order to beat Grand Rapids on Friday,” Nelson said. “We have to win at least one more game in order to have a decent chance at getting into the playoffs or else we may be on the outside looking in.”

Silver Bay football

The Mariners fell 41-29 to the Cherry Tigers at the Mariner’s homecoming game Friday in a dual that featured many exciting big plays to keep the crowd on its feet. The Mariners are 1-4 (1-2 in conference) for third place in the St. Louis County South Conference.

The game saw long gains for scores on the ground, in the air, and on special teams. Cherry moved mainly on the ground while the Mariners were forced to the air as they had trouble moving the ball.

In the end it came down to a couple of fumbles the Mariner’s lost inside the red zone and the Mariner’s inability to stop the Cherry running game up the middle. Silver Bay turned the ball over four times.

Cherry jumped out to a 7-0 lead on their second possession of the game via a 1- yard run by quarterback Adam Mayry. The Mariners came right back and tied it up on a 3-yard run by quarterback Luke Thun. After the Tigers went up 14-7 on a 40-yard pass from Mayry to Alec Gruenhagen, the Mariners came right back.

This time Silver Bay used a little trickery as Holden Panetti used the halfback option to find Cody Larson in the end zone for a 21-yard score. A Thun pass to Kyle Blood was good for two and the Bay led 15-14 at halftime.

The third quarter opened with a bang as Mayry returned the kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. Before the crowd even had a chance to sit back down, Larson returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards for a Mariner touchdown and the score was tied at 21. Cherry then marched 83 yards in 11 plays to take a 29-21 lead that they would never relinquish with 5:41 left in the third quarter.

After the Mariners fumbled the ball to the Tigers in the end zone for a touchback, the Tigers went 80 yards and led 35-21. Following a 55-yard kickoff return by Larson to the Tiger 15-yard line, Silver Bay fumbled the ball away three plays later on the 15. This led to an 85-yard drive and a 41-21 lead with 2:05 to go. The Bay came right back with a one-play drive on a 46-yard pass from Thun to Blood, but it was too little, too late.

The Mariners top rusher was Larson at 22 yards as the Bay had 30 yards total. Thun connected on 9-of-13 passing for 220 yards.

Larson finished the night with 280 total yards. He had 147 yards on kick returns and a touchdown, caught five passes for 111 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 22 yards before an injury. Holden Panetti finished with 16 tackles.

Two Harbors girls soccer

The Two Harbors girls soccer team lost 6-0 to Duluth East Thursday.

The Greyhounds scored in the first minute of action, as well as later in the second, to take a 2-0 lead going into the half. It was all East in the second half as they scored four-unanswered goals.

Lucy Bukowski had 16 saves for Two Harbors while the Agates had one shot on goal.

The Agates tied Hibbing-Chisholm 1-1 Monday.

The Agates played at Hermantown Thursday in the first round of the playoffs.

Two Harbors boys soccer

The Two Harbors boys soccer team lost to Duluth Marshall 5-1 Saturday.

The Hilltoppers scored two goals in three minutes to take a 2-0 lead in the first half. In the second half, Duluth Marshall scored twice more making it 4-0 before Jon Horoshak scored on a penalty kick at the 75th minute for the Agates. The Hilltoppers scored immediately after that to close out the game.

Sam Strom had 10 saves for Two Harbors.

“With our limited defense [Paul Sonday is out for the season with broken bone in his foot] Alex Horoshak really stepped up,” head coach David Lukkonen said.

The Agates lost 5-0 to Proctor Monday. The teams were tied at the half before the Rails offense turned it up a notch scoring five unanswered goals in the second half.

The Agates played at Chisago Lakes in the first round of the playoffs Thursday.

Two Harbors-Cook County cross country

The Two Harbors-Cook County cross country team competed at the Hibbing Rotary Invitational Thursday with the girls team placing third and the boys finishing No. 4.

“Coming off outstanding performances at the huge Milaca and Swain cross country meets, we went to the Hibbing invitational with high expectations,” head coach Chris Hegg said. “It didn’t quite work out like we hoped, but we still had a 100 percent effort and some very good individual performances.”

Hegg said there was 15 Class A and eight AA teams at the meet, with AA and A running together, along with the varsity and junior varsity combining.

“Unless you are first or last, you don’t ever know exactly where you are in the meet until the results are posted,” he said. “The course is also pancake flat, the opposite of our recent races and training.”

Ailee Larson of Cook County won the top Class A finisher with a time of 15:56 while Anna Schield of Two Harbors placed No. 9 with a time of 17:20 in the Class A race. Sara Schield of Two Harbors finished second among junior varsity racers with a time of 20:13.

In the boys varsity race, Kieran Scannell of Cook County finished second among Class A runners with a time of 17:36. Josh Ensign of Two Harbors came in at No. 11 with a time of 18:35. Drew Christiansen of Two Harbors was the top boys junior varsity runner finishing at 21:38.

Two Harbors swimming

The Two Harbors swimming team finished third at the Grand Rapids Invitational Thursday against six other area teams.

Rebecca Ronning took second place in the diving event while Brooke Fletcher was No. 2 in the 500-yard freestyle and third in the 200-yard free. Mara Boulanger placed No. 3 in the 100-yard backstroke.

The Agates 400-yard freestyle relay team (Stephanie McGregor, Jennie Dwyer, Boulanger, and Fletcher) also took second place.

The Agates lost to Duluth Central Tuesday.

“I knew this meet would be close, so I told the girls that they needed to step it up to compete with this team, and they did,” head coach Tara Kasell said. “The meet was awesome. Even though Central squeaked out the win … the Agates had 31 [of the] best times for the night, and I am extremely proud of how the girls performed.”

Ronning took first in the diving event while Dwyer (100-yard free), Fletcher (500-yard free), and Boulanger (100-yard backstroke) won their events.

Other top finishes came from Fletcher (second in the 200-yard free), and McGregor (second 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard fly).

Three relay teams took second at the meet including the 200-yard medley relay (Emily Riemer, McGregor, Boulanger, and Dwyer), 200-yard free relay (Heather Fynboh, Kiersten Haaversen, Fletcher, and Ronning), and the 400-yard free relay (Boulanger, Fletcher, Ronning, and Dwyer).

Volleyball standings

Polar League

(overall, conference)

1. Esko 23-1, 8-0

2. Barnum11-10, 7-1

3. Carlton 10-8, 6-3

4. Cook County 16-2, 7-2

5. Floodwood 10-6, 5-3

6. McGregor 8-13, 4-5

7. Cromwell 13-11, 4-5

8. Moose Lake/Willow River 5-16, 3-5

9. Two Harbors 2-15, 2-6

10. Silver Bay 3-13, 1-8

11. Wrenshall 0-14, 0-9

Football standings

(overall, conference)

St. Louis County South Conference

1. Mountain-Iron Buhl 4-1, 3-0

2. Cherry 4-2, 2-1

3. Silver Bay 1-4, 1-2

4. AlBrook/Cotton 0-6, 0-3

Polar League White Conference

1. Esko 4-2, 3-0

2. Moose Lake/Willow River 6-0, 3-0

3. Deer River 3-3, 1-2

4. Two Harbors 2-4, 0-3

5. Duluth Marshall 1-5, 0-2

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