Outside The County-Maconaquah

The Maconaquah Lady Braves competed in the Taylor University Invitational on Saturday, completing their 5 race in 15 days! The girls placed 5th of 11 complete teams.

Junior Abby Jordan continued her strong season by running another personal record time, taking 3rd place overall with a time of 19:22. The freshman tandem of Chloe Jordan (22nd, 21:04) and Zoie Laber (26th, 21:14) are continuing to learn how to run at the high school level. Sophomore Lucy Loshnowsky ran her best race of the season, placing 34th and crossing the line in 21:40. Samantha Jones (47th, 22:22) rounded out the scoring for the Lady Braves, while junior Lauren Driscoll (60th, 23:30) ran another season best.

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The Maconaquah boys went to the Taylor Wilderness to run in the Taylor University Invitational, and they finished in 4th place overall in a field of 14 teams!

The Braves were led by junior Isaiah Wittenberg, who ran a personal record time for the season, finishing in 10th place and coming in with a time of 16:51. Fellow junior Kaden Miller followed up his strong race Tuesday with another stellar performance, grabbing 36th place and finishing in 17:46. Daylen Schrock (42nd, 18:00) was the next Brave to come in, followed by Kaden Hanson ( 90th, 19:13) and Isaish Moore (98th, 19:23).

Also running for the Braves was Jacob Sayger (184th, 25:03), Quinn Richard (188th, 26:13), and Luke Abbott (194th, 30:42).

Overall this was probably the strongest race of the season for the boys. An excellent effort all around!

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In the toughest contest yet, Maconaquah Boys soccer remains undefeated as the team beat a very good Eastbrook. Maconaquah has now scored 26 goals on the season while allowing 0. As has been the case all year, the braves defense shut down Eastbrook’s attacks, particularily in the 2nd half of todays game. Scoring for Maconaquah was Alex Hicks with a two goal day. His first came off a corner kick which Eastbrook cleared to the top of the box, where Alex was waiting and placed a perfect top right corner shot. The 2nd goal started with a Ryan Ousley long crossed ball to Wyatt Price, who made a pass across the face of the goalie to Hicks, who put it in.

The next game will be Tuesday at home verses Oak Hill. Oak Hill has had the braves number beating Maconaquah for several years in a row and in the last two sectional games.

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The Lewis Cass Kings used punishing rushing attack in the second half to hold off a gallant effort by the Maconaquah Braves here Friday night and escaped with a 20-14 non-conference triumph.

"I'm super proud of the kid's effort," said Brave coach Tyler Campbell following the hard-fought battle.  "It was a great game with two great teams and one team was going to lose."  The loss evened Maconaquah's record at 1-1, while Cass moved to 2-0 after beating state perennial power Pioneer last week.  The Braves return to Three Rivers Conference action Friday hosting Northfield.


Cass now leads the overall series, 43-13, and has not lost to the Braves at home since 1987, winning 15 straight when Mac visits Walton.  


 The lastest win was anything but easy for the Kings as Campbell's thrill-a-minute kids spilled their guts for 48 minutes before Cass claimed the win.  


 After a scoreless first quarter, Cass put together an 80-yard, 10-play scoring drive to take a 6-0 lead with 4:07 left.  The Braves quickly answered.


Starting own its on 37, Mac's high-octane offense quickly moved downfield with junior quarterback Braxton Birner disecting the King defense.   Kaleb Shelton began Mac's march to paydirt with a nifty 35-yard catch on first down.  AJ Kelly kept the drive alive four plays later, converting with a fourth-down reception.  After the Braves reached the Cass six, Birner was sacked with a six-yard loss and then was pressured to throw out of bounds setting up a third-and-12.  Birner spotted sophomore Fuddy Kile in the right corner of the endzone and Kile tied the game with a diving TD catch.  Kyler Hanson's perfect PAT kick gave MHS a 7-6 lead at intermission.


 Birner finished the first half with 205 yards on 24 of 31 accuracy.  Shelton had eight catches for 84 yards during the opening half, while Kile added 65 on five receptions.   Birner would finish the game with 332 yards, completing 32 of 45 passes. On the night,  Kelly led Brave receivers with 135 yards on 12 catches, while Shelton (10-96) and Kile (7-80) added to the balanced passing attack.


 Cass took the second half kickoff and reeled off a 60-yard, seven play drive to take the lead for good, 12-7 with 7:54 showing in the third act.  That is when things got a little wild.


 After a Brave punt, the Kings took over at the Mac 37 and recovered their own fumble on first down.  A long run and Brave facemask penalty had the Kings at the 18 on the next play.  Cass then appeared to add another score on a pass, but Mac's defense forced a fumble at the one and after a wild scramble soph Ethan Farnell recovered for the Braves.


 Starting deep in its own territory at their own one, Maconaquah was facing a third-and-seven when Birner was intercepted by Cooper Frey who danced in from three yards out for the Cass tally.  The Kings converted on the conversion run for a 20-7 lead with 4:44 remaining in the quarter.


 The Kings got the ball back at the Brave 46 at the end of the period when Kelly fumbled after catching a Birner pass.  


  Cass appeared to put the game on ice to start the final act when they began to burn some clock with their grinding rushing attack.  The hosts moved from the Mac 46 to the two-yard line before the Braves defense stiffened and stopped them at the three with just under eight minutes to go.


  Enter the Birner-to-Kelly duo once again.  After an incompletion, Birner hit Kelly with a short pass along the Cass sideline.  Kelly shook off a couple defenders and then electrified the crowd with a 97-yard TD sprint to the endzone.  Hanson's PAT trimmed the deficit to 20-14 with 7:40 left.  The long TD pass was the longest in school history, erasing the previous mark of 92 yards set in 2014 when Nathan Robinson hauled in a Luke Hann TD reception vs Taylor.


 The Braves scoring drive lasted 18 seconds, the only time Mac would have the ball in the fourth quarter as Cass had the pigskin 11:42 and ran out the clock with 13 straight rushing plays.  Maconaquah appreared to have one final chance near the end when Cass fumbled 10 yards from paydirt, but after a wild, chaotic scramble the Kings recovered and sealed the win by taking a knee on the final two snaps.


Unofficially, Gavin Nethercutt and Ethan Farnell topped the MHS tackle charts with 11 and 10 stops respectively.  Kelly and Shelton were each credited with seven tackles and Brady Dausch added six.