The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch B-1 Wednesday, Januar y 11, 2023 SPORTS Submit sports items: Call: 812-354-8500 Email: sports@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg See FIGHT on page 4 See NIPPED on page 3 www.UebelhorGM.com Jasper • 1-800-937-8721 CHEVROLET six Pike Central wrestlers went undefeated as the Char- gers won the Forest Park Invi- tational. It is the second tour- nament in a row they have won this season. Charger Coach John Thompson said it is the first time since the 2017 -18 season the Chargers have won the an- nual Forest Park Invitational. The team finished with a 4- 0 record in the five team dual meet format, defeating north Knox 72-6, Princeton 44-33, Forest Park 64-18, and south spencer 69 -6. The six wrestlers who went 4-0 on the day were: Gage Morton at 120, Griffin Boyd at 126, Briar Thomas at 138, al- ex Gray at 152, skylar shelton at 170 and Corey Goeppner at 220. Goeppner joined a small group of Charger wrestlers over the years as he recorded his 100th career victory. Finishing 3-1 and also pick- ing up a weight class champi- onship was 106 pounder Kylee Baker. Others going 3-1 on the day were: ryan Gladish 132, riley Mosby 145, nate Kell 182, Paul Thompson 195 and Hayden Goins 285. Jayden Bolin at 160 also picked up a win. "This is the second week in a row we have won a tour- ney title. It's a good feeling. We are firing on all cylinders and this is the best we've wres- tled all season. The kids have disciplined themselves and worked very hard all season in the practice room and they are reaping the rewards. I'm very proud of how hard they are working and the progress they are making. We hope to continue this momentum in the last few weeks of the sea- son before sectional," said Coach Thompson. "Corey Goeppner getting his 100th career win this weekend was awesome. He is such a great leader and hard worker for this team and his years of dedication to the sport have paid off. It's pretty awesome to have him join the 100 win club that includes two of his former coaches (Char- ger greats ryan McCain and Jake sisk), and one of his cur- rent coaches, another Charger great is dexter Brothers." The Chargers season du- al record is now 15 -14. They wrestle again at 6 p.m. (Pike County time) Thursday at evansville Central and the team splits saturday with the varsity traveling to Tell City and the JV will be at south- ridge. Both start at 10 a.m. Charger wrestlers undefeated at Forest Park Invitational PIke Central had seven weight class champions in the Forest Park Invitational. They are, from left: Kylee Baker, Corey Goeppner, Griffin Boyd, Briar Thomas, Alex Gray, Skylar Shelton, and Gage Morton. Chargers nipped by Rangers 48-32 By James Capozella Press-Dispatch News news@pressdispatch.neet Five Lady Chargers were responsible for outscoring the visiting Forest Park Lady rangers 23 to 17 in the second half, but a slow start kept the Lady rangers in the driver's seat for their saturday 48 -32 Pocket athletic Conference win at Pike Central. The Lady Chargers trailed 10 -5 in the opening stanza but then fell behind when four Lady rangers netted second quar- ter threes to take a 31-9 first half advan- tage. Liberty Taylor tied the contest up at two all in the first minute of action but it took five minutes to get back on the scoreboard while the Lady rangers ran off eight unanswered points. Brailey Mills scored her first points of the eve- ning, ending the first quarter with a shot from behind the arc with an assist by an- na Whitehead. The Lady Chargers were dou- ble-teamed most of the second quarter as the rangers netted 21 points, includ- ing four threes to take them into the half up 31-9. starting junior forward shelby Meadows netted the first second quarter basket following free throws courtesy of Chargers score last eight points of game to top Evansville Day School By Joye Hamilton Press-Dispatch Sports sports@pressdispatch.net down by six points with under two minutes remain- ing, the Pike Central Char- gers fought back Friday night, scoring the last eight of the game to beat evans- ville day school eagles 57- 55 on the road, spoiling the eagles' homecoming. Trailing most of the game, Pike Central played some great defense in the final quarter to create timely turn- overs and score at crunch time. Junior Julian Gish was fouled on a successful three- point shot with 15 seconds re- maining. The basket put the Chargers up by one and the converted free throw put the Chargers up by two, sealing the win. "We had some big plays down the stretch," comment- ed Charger Coach Hunter el- liott, although he added, "We didn't come out ready to play (and) didn't come out ready to execute." The Chargers won the tip and Junior Quade Mor- ton converted the first bas- ket for the Chargers to give them the early lead. Pike Central went up 9 -4 halfway through the first period, with additional baskets by Morton and two back-to-back baskets by senior Peyton Howald. evansville day's transi- tion offense was working for the eagles, allowing them to go up by one with just over a minute left in the first. Gish contributed his only points of the first half at 0:25 with a basket and a converted free throw, putting the Chargers up again 12-11. Ten seconds later, eagle Tyler Myers, who led all scor- ers with 30, hit a trey to once again give the eagles the lead by two. The Chargers' ensuing possession had Mor- ton pull up for a jumper and come up short. The fight for the rebound concluded with Peyton Howald tipping in the ball in at the buzzer. That basket tied the game at 14 to close out the first. The second period was a low scoring affair for the Chargers, seeing Morton score all eight of the Char- gers points. although both teams made attempts to score, with the Chargers moving the ball well, the rim was not friendly for ei- ther team, with the eagles only putting 11 on the score- board themselves. although shot attempts were not fall- ing, the Chargers continued to play tough defense, pre- venting the eagles from tak- ing advantage of the poor shooting in the period. The first half ended with evans- ville day school up 25 -22. The third period opened with the Chargers quickly going down by five. Morton cut the lead to three at the 6:05 mark, and a basket by sophomore Jiles Mason cut the lead to one, forty seconds later. Mason had a career-high 14 points, all in the second half, coming off the bench. Coach elliott commented that, "( Jiles) was aggressive and played hard. Hopeful- ly this (performance) gives him confidence going for- ward." The eagles maintained the lead, pushing it back to five with just under two min- utes to play in the period. Two point baskets by Pey- ton Howald and Mason and a trey by Morton with four seconds left gave the Char- gers a 40 -39 lead to close out the quarter. The eagles took the lead again on a deuce by Myers and the Chargers continued to trail in the fourth, down by six with 54 seconds remain- ing. Baskets by Mason and Peyton Howald in 14 seconds closed the margin to two. Full court pressure by the Chargers created a turnover by the eagles and Pike Cen- tral was determined to pull out the win. With 15 seconds on the clock, the ball was fed to Gish on the left wing and he swished a contested three-point basket. Gish was Lady Chargers Liberty Taylor and Brailey Mills go for a loose ball in the tilt with Forest Park this past Sat- urday. Lady Charger junior guard Brailey Mills attempts a shot through the Lady Ranger defense.