Shane Hulsey, Sports Writer
HANNIBAL, Mo. — Landyn Essig’s encore performance was just as impressive as his opening act. With the Hannibal football team leading Moberly 41-18 at the start of the fourth quarter of Friday’s North Central Missouri Conference game at Porter Stadium, Essig had already run the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, rushed for a touchdown…
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QUINCY — Andrew Brown was so close. Painstakingly close. With three minutes left and the Quincy High School and Quincy Notre Dame boys soccer teams deadlocked at 3 during Thursday night’s clash at Flinn Stadium, Quincy’s Logan Epping received a through ball on the right wing from Trace Routh. Epping kept his eyes up and…
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The five remaining schools in the North Central Missouri Conference (NCMC) — Hannibal Public Schools, Kirksville School District, Marshall Public Schools, Mexico Public Schools, and Moberly School District have announced the dissolution of the North Central Missouri Conference, effective at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Superintendents and activities directors from NCMC member schools…
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MOBERLY, Mo. — Morgan Crist was one of two golfers to break 90 as she led the Highland girls golf team to a Class 1 District 3 championship at Heritage Hills Golf Course. This district championship earned the Cougars a spot at the Class 1 state tournament. Crist shot an 18-over 88, tied with Marceline’s…
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QUINCY — Redemption tasted pretty sweet. So did healing the wounds from the way last season ended. The Quincy Notre Dame volleyball team avenged its loss to Macomb in the 2023 Class 2A regional championship game by sweeping the Bombers 25-21, 25-16 on Wednesday at The Pit. “They wanted this more than anything,” Raiders first-year…
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QUINCY — Danielle White and the Quincy Notre Dame volleyball team know what lies ahead. That’s why the Raiders coach was as impressed as she was with her team’s 25-19, 25-13 West Central Conference win over Southeastern on Tuesday at The Pit. This win came 24 hours before a clash with undefeated Macomb, a rematch…
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Splish, splash: Raiders coach takes dip in Lake Springfield to celebrate girls golf team's state bid
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Quincy Notre Dame girls golf coach Jason Knuffman made a promise to his team prior to Monday’s Class 1A Rochester Sectional at Lincoln Greens Golf Course. If the Raiders qualified for the state tournament, he would jump in Lake Springfield. Knuffman stayed true to his word and took a plunge in the…
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QUINCY — The Blue Devil brigade was out in full force at Saturday’s Tom Oakley Invitational. The Quincy High School boys and girls cross country teams blazed a trail through Bob Mays Park to capture the top five positions and team titles in both races. Quincy’s Eli Poe overcame a misstep with a mile left…
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KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — For the Hannibal football team, it was a game of what-ifs. For Kirksville, it was a game of emphatic statements. The Tigers notched their first victory against the Pirates since 1998 by grinding out a 16-15 victory Friday at Spainhower Field. “We earned some football fans tonight,” Tigers coach Gregg Nesbitt said.…
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PALMYRA, Mo. — Drew Copenhaver’s faith never wavered, no matter how improbable his comeback seemed as he lied on the turf with his right knee obliterated. Facing Centralia in the Clarence Cannon Conference football opener last fall, the Palmyra wide receiver made a spectacular overe-the-shoulder catch, was dragged down from behind a yard short of…
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MACOMB, Ill. — Macomb volleyball coach Briana Rexroat didn’t know why, but she had a vision leading up to the Bombers’ heavyweight clash with Southeastern on Wednesday. “For some reason, all day I was envisioning 25-12,” Rexroat said. “I just kept seeing those two numbers.” Nostradamus would have been proud. Rexroat’s vision came true in…
Read Full Article LEWISTOWN, Mo. — In less than two full seasons, the Highland girls golf program has put itself on the map. In 2023 — Highland’s first year fielding a girls golf team as a varsity program — the Cougars finished third out of 11 teams at the Class 1 District 3 Tournament and sent three golfers…
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QUINCY — Annie Eaton’s volleyball acumen continues to amaze first-year Quincy Notre Dame coach Danielle White. For a handful of points during Monday’s West Central Conference match against Camp Point Central, Eaton, normally a setter, found herself at outside hitter in a rotation White likes to implement from time to time. “I remember this summer…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — Kevin Westhoff knows how intense and physical the Hannibal soccer team’s games against Marshall can be. “Playing them all four years of high school, it’s always been like this,” Westhoff siad. “It just gets crazier and crazier each year.” And in a game that featured three red cards, several hard fouls, and…
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QUINCY — The Quincy University women’s volleyball team fed the hot hand, and the Hawks parlayed that momentum into one of their most dominant sets of the season. In Saturday’s Great Lakes Valley Conference and homecoming match against Missouri S&T, Quincy sophomore outside hitter Susanna Beretti finished the third set with three straight kills, and…
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QUINCY — A touchdown in a game separated by 35 points with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter can seem insignificant. Try telling that to Harold Williams. Williams’ 28-yard touchdown run with 1:41 to go punctuated state-ranked Quincy High School’s 49-7 Western Big 6 Conference victory over United Township on Friday night…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — Sometimes a team’s record doesn’t tell the whole story. Hannibal football coach Jeff Gschwender believes that is the case regarding the Pirates’ 2-2 start to 2024. “I feel like we’re a little better off than where I expected to be,” Gshwender said. Gschwender’s positive outlook stems from not only the Pirates’ lopsided…
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CARTHAGE, Ill. — Even though the Macomb volleyball team won the first set of its Prairieland Conference match Tuesday against Illini West, Bombers coach Briana Rexroat knew they could play a cleaner second set. The Bombers committed 11 combined service and hitting errors in the first set, and Rexroat gave her team a benchmark to…
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MACOMB, Ill. — The doubt Quinn Rexroat once had has transformed into confidence. Rexroat had mixed feelings about moving from libero, a position she had played for the first six years of her volleyball career, to setter as a freshman at Macomb High School. “I just liked controlling the defense and I didn’t really like…
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QUINCY — Beau Eftink and Dylan Kies may have found their new good luck charm. The Quincy Notre Dame tandem rocked Snoop Dogg shirts — black button-ups with a No. 93 and ‘Dogg’ written on the back — and Spider-Man hats to go along with their American flag pants as they won both of their…
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PAYSON, Ill. — Quincy Notre Dame volleyball coach Danielle White knows the days are ticking away until the postseason begins. “Forty days is not a lot, so we have to start really performing how we are going to want to be performing come that 40-day mark,” White said. That was White’s message to her team…
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MONROE CITY, Mo. — The end of an era for the Monroe City softball program is coming soon. Panthers coach Melissa Chinn tries not to let that cross her mind. “It’s very sad to think about,” Chinn said. At the same time, she is grateful for having been able to coach each of the three…
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QUINCY — The American flag pants the Quincy Notre Dame boys golf team wears each year during the Quincy Ryder Cup might not be the most comfortable, but Raiders junior Aiden Tangy would gladly trade a little bit of discomfort to look stylish. “They’re very hot, but they’re really cool,” Tangy said. “I think they…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — The Hannibal boys soccer team may not have earned the opportunity to play for a championship in its own tournament, but Kevin Westhoff and the Pirates relished the chance to exact revenge on Rolla — the team that, until Saturday, had handed Hannibal its only loss of the season. Westhoff’s penalty kick…
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PALMYRA, Mo. — Monroe City freshman Anna Russell is quick to point out what makes the Flower City Park cross country course — the site of Saturday’s 10th annual Palmyra Invitational — so challenging. “Lots of hills,” Russell said. It wasn’t just the number of hills that made it so tough, either. “The gradual incline…
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MONROE CITY, Mo. — South Shelby senior linebacker Daniel Timbrook didn’t score, but his interception turned the tide just the same. With the Cardinals leading Monroe City 12-6 and 6:35 to go in the second quarter of Friday’s Clarence Cannon Conference opener at Lankford Field, Monroe City running back Dylan Ross broke off a 54-yard…
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QUINCY — Fearless. If Quincy High School volleyball coach Kate Brown had to pick one adjective to describe the way her team is playing right now, this is the one she would choose. “They’ve found that fight and the fuel to the fire,” Brown said. The Blue Devils scratched and clawed their way to a…
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CANTON, Mo. — Allie Ruffcorn wasn’t just pitching for the Canton softball team on Wednesday. She was pitching for Carson Birck. Birck, a 2020 Canton graduate and former Tigers baseball and basketball player, died Tuesday during a work-related accident. “I cried a lot during warmups,” Ruffcorn said. “I didn’t go to school today. I just…
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MONROE CITY, Mo. — The Monroe City football team sees the train coming down the tracks. “The kids know what’s coming,” Panthers coach David Kirby said. And as the train that bears the name South Shelby quickly approaches, Kirby knows the kind of performance it will take to knock off the reigning Clarence Cannon Conference…
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PAYSON, Ill. — You can take Ella Archer out of volleyball, but you can’t take volleyball out of Ella Archer. The Payson Seymour do-everything senior, who also plays softball and basketball, decided to step away from volleyball during her junior year. “I just needed a break, a little time off to kind of regroup,” Archer…
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