Sports

Football gets first win of the season

Published by admin on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 11:30am

It probably wasn’t how the Hill City Rangers wanted — or expected — to get their first win of the season.

A potent Rangers ground game got the team their first win of the season in a game against the Edgemont Moguls on Sept. 11.

Senior Jaxon Johnson lead the way for the Rangers, picking up three touchdowns — two off a handoff and one off of a kick return.

Johnson’s three touchdowns helped to lead the Rangers to a 38-28 win. All Rangers points came off of either kick returns or rushing plays.

Volleyball wins close match

Published by admin on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 11:30am

The Rangers might have won 3-0 (25-19, 25-12, 25-20) against the Spearfish Spartans on Sept. 10, but there was nothing easy about the win.

The mood in Gins Gym was electric that night as the two teams traded leads with one another before the Rangers closed out the game.

The match started out with a strong start by the Rangers, who went up 11-0 in the first set thanks to some excellent service by senior Hailey Wathen, who had two aces during that run.

Spearfish, though, did not go quietly into that goodnight.

Wildcat golfers win home meet

Published by admin on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 9:09am
 
It was a strong week of golf for the Custer High School golf team last week, as it won its own home golf meet last Friday at Rocky Knolls Golf Course while taking a second place at a meet the previous day.
The Wildcats continued a trend of taking turns being the best golfer at a meet at the Custer meet when freshman Ryder Bailey was the top scorer for Custer, shooting a round of 82, which was good for a second-place finish at the meet.

Harriers first, second at Belle

Published by admin on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 9:07am
 
With some of their toughest competition out of the way and a cooler day to run from the previous week, the Custer cross country varsity teams placed first and second in races at the Belle Fourche Invitational on Thursday. 
Junior Kadense Dooley won the girls 5K race at the hilly Belle Fourche Country Club to lead her team to a first place finish over Spearfish, Sturgis, Belle Fourche and St. Thomas More. Cross country powerhouses Hill City and Rapid City Stevens were not in attendance at the meet. 

Poor first half costs ’Cats in Lennox

Published by admin on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 8:50am
 
It was a tale of two halves last Friday evening for the Custer High School football team in Lennox, as the Wildcats fell behind 21-0 at halftime before roaring back with a chance to tie the game in the second half in a 35-20 loss to the Orioles.
The ’Cats got a taste of how things would go for the first half of their first drive when Daniel Sedlacek broke a long touchdown run, only to have it called back for an illegal block in the back that head coach David Williams said didn’t happen.

Music glitch costly for cheer team

Published by admin on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 8:50am
The Custer competitive cheer team scored 91.5 points for a fifth place finish in the Rapid City Central Cheer and Dance Invitational on Monday.
Wildcats head coach Cece Lubben said the team did not have any safety deductions but did have some technical issues that impacted the girls’ performance. 
“The music got messed up in the beginning of the routine and it messed up the girls,” said Lubben. “We’ve had better runs but I’m still very proud of the girls.”

Wildcat volleyball brings down Bison

Published by admin on Thu, 09/17/2020 - 8:49am
By Ron Burtz
 
The Custer girls volleyball team put another game in the win column Thursday night in Hot Springs to bring its season record to five wins and four losses. 
The Wildcats put the Bison away in straight sets of 25-20, 25-16 and 25-19 while leading most of the way. 
“Hot Springs definitely played much harder on their home court, as we expected they would,” said co-head coach Jill Hohn, “so it wasn’t an easy win for like it was at our tournament. 

Cross country expecting big results

Published by admin on Thu, 09/10/2020 - 10:48am

The Hill City cross country team is expecting another big year.

Last year, the girls team placed second at state, and seniors Kadyn Comer and Rebecca Cutler are once again expecting them to be there.

“We definitely have a lot of really talented kids out for cross country this year, especailly our girls team,” Cutler said. “So I think we can proudly say that we are really aiming to win state this year and can definitely do that.”

Comer said she and her teammates are very competitive, even in practice.

Football looks to be physical

Published by admin on Thu, 09/10/2020 - 10:48am

The Hill City Rangers football team looks to improve every day and create a football mentality in each player, said head coach Brett Eckert.

He also expects them to create a physical aspect to their game.

“Austin Groven has started on both sides of the ball last year and has taken over our qurterback position,” Eckert said.” He is very knowledgeable about our offense which gives us the ability to check into good plays at the line of scrimmage under his direction. Tanner Davis is only a junior and is expected to lead.”

Volleyball stays undefeated

Published by admin on Thu, 09/10/2020 - 10:47am

The Hill City Rangers volleyball team stayed undefeated with a resounding 3-0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-16) victory against the Belle Fourche Broncos in a game on Sept. 6. — the Rangers first game in Gins Gym that season and the first home game in Hill City Gins’ Gym since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rangers set the tone early, getting the first points of the game. The Broncos, though, kept it close early in the first and third sets with a resounding dominiation by the Rangers in the second set.