SPORTS

Allan Lewis News Report Staff

St. Anthony outside hitter Maggie Mumm tips the ball past two Cumberland blockers during Tuesday nights regional game in Cumberland. Mumm had five kills for the Bulldogs.
News Report Photo/Allan Lewis

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Thursday, October 25, 2012
Mumm. Megan Nuxoll collected seven kills to lead the Bulldogs. Bailey said her teams struggles in the passing game allowed her outside hitters like Nuxoll and Logan Braunecker, who had four kills, to do most of the damage. Our passing wasnt the greatest in the second game and its hard for your setter when the passing isnt on, Bailey said. But we were able to go to the outside, which is Braunecker and Nuxoll and they were able to put the ball down, which was good. The Bulldogs will face Pana Thursday in the Shelbyville Regional final. We have played Pana before and they dont make errors, Bailey said. We need to serve aggressively and tighten up our block because they will be able to hit us. We need to pick up our defense because they were kind of weak tonight.

Bulldogs beat Cumberland, advance to regional final

The St. Anthony volleyball team came out swinging in the first game of Tuesday nights match in the Shelbyville Regional semifinals against Cumberland and held on in the second to avoid a third set and get revenge on the team that knocked it out of contention in last years regional final. It was nice for us to get them back, coach Kristie Bailey said. St. Anthony built an 18-3 lead in game one, thanks to a 14-0 run after Cumberland scored two straight points to make it a 4-3 game. From there, St. Anthony cruised to a 25-12 win. We played our game and served them aggressively and that was our whole game plan. Serve them deep and hard. We were able to do that and keep them from setting their big hitters and that really helped us, Bailey said. Cumberland was not going to go down easily, though, and had the Bulldogs tied at 21 late in the second set. I think we won by too much in the first game and kind of got lackadaisical in the second game, Bailey said. St. Anthony got back to its style of volleyball, though, and hung on for the sweep with a 25-23 win in set two, ending the match on a lethal kill by setter Hailey Mathis. Towards the end of the match we started to play the volleyball we are used to, and its been a long time since we have played a match. Its been about a week. It was good to get back in the flow of things, Bailey said. Surprisingly, the Pirates were able to keep Mathis in check throughout the blowout in set one, although she did come alive in the second set to collect five kills, which was second best on the team along with Maggie

Effingham advances with regional win at Olney

Effingham High School was able to spoil the homecourt advantage held by Olney in its regional Tuesday. The Hearts knocked off the Tigers 25-18, 25-19 and advanced to face Mattoon Thursday night. Deedra Myers had eight kills and Kallie Koester had six to lead the Hearts. Myers also had nine digs in the win. The Wooden Shoes volleyball team ended its season with a two set, 2516, 25-15 loss to host Shelbyville in opening round regional play Monday. Lucy Niemerg, Julie Wente, Natalie Summers and Dakota Swingler each had two kills to lead the Teutopolis offense, while Ruholl had seven assists and Morgan Dreer contributed five digs. Teutopolis finished with a 5-23 record.

Teutopolis bows out of Shelbyville Regional

The Belford

Wall

Rookie Goalie stepped up for Wooden Shoes

the same mentality you did in high school, Jansen said. I never coached John, but I watched him and knew his mentality. He thought it was always his fault. During the summer I kicked a bit with John to get some practice and get some touches on the ball, Belford said. We had some scrimmage games going on and I had five sessions of goalie training during soccer conditioning. It was nice, getting muddy, diving, running around and sweating. Even then, Belford was hard on himself, despite his limited skills at the time and a talented group of Teutopolis soccer alumni taking their shots at him. Every time he was scored on this summer he would drop down, throw the ball and do 10 push-ups, Jansen said. By the end of the day he couldnt do any more. That just shows you his mentality Belford kept getting better, kept taking his coaches word to heart, asked questions, studied opposing keepers and started to look at the work of Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech for inspiration. We see some really excellent goalkeeping and he watches what they do. Thats the skill level he wants to get to. He says hey coach, I want to be able to do that and give this team that option, Jansen said. I told him at the beginning of the season to always have a ball in your hands. It doesnt matter if it is a tennis ball or a soccer ball. Sit there and bounce a ball against the wall and catch it. Improve your hand eye coordination. Have a ball in

Allan Lewis News Report Staff

your hand at every moment. He takes everything we say to him straight to heart. Belford was determined to become the teams starting goalie. He got the start in Teutopolis first game, helping his team shut out Taylorville 4-0. He had his own doubts. I was really nervous before the game and tried to work on that throughout the year, Belford said. Jansen said Belford is one of the most humble players on his team. He is never one to point fingers. He

Seth Belford joined the Teutopolis soccer team on a recommendation from his friend and teammate Alex Niebrugge with little experience. My foot coordination is horrible, Belford said. I couldnt do it if they paid me. The Teutopolis soccer program, fresh off a regional championship in 2011, was in a tough spot after its starting goalkeeper left the team. Coach Dustin Jansen was running out of options, and said Niebrugge, who had some past goalkeeping experience, couldnt play the position because he missed the entire last season recovering from a ruptured spleen. We really had no other options, Jansen said. Niebrugge told the 16-year-old junior Belford there was a goalkeeper opening on team, but Belford had no soccer experience outside of limited play at the pee-wee level. He decided to go for it. Why not? I played for a couple of years when I was really little, Belford said. I figured it would be something cool to do. Tagging Belford as the starting goalkeeper was an experiment Jansen had his doubts about early. Then again, Teutopolis didnt have many options. When he came out this summer it was choppy to say the least, Jansen said. He had no ball control, no foot skills at all. His punting was very wild, all over the place at the beginning. He was willing to step back, take the criticism and try again. We had junior high goalies who could punt farther than him. Jansen, the rest of the coaching staff and the rest of the Wooden Shoes believed in Belford, who spent the summer working with former Teutopolis goalkeeper John Runde to learn the fundamentals of the position and try to become something he previously was not. I told John you will enjoy him because he has

always took the blame and felt responsible no matter what, Jansen said. He is always thinking about what he could have done better even when a situation is completely out of his hands. When you have that attitude it pushes you forward. He is not one to say oh yeah, I saved the game. The most he would say after the game was coach, did you see that save? I was so lucky. He wouldnt even give himself credit. Its hard for Belford not to take the blame when scored upon. Its just everything that I could have done that I didnt do to potentially stop it, Belford said. Im just not a big fan of giving up goals that hurt the team.

Belford responded modestly when asked if he felt he helped the team more than he hurt them in his first season of high school soccer. Maybe, I guess you could say that, Belford said. No one questioned Belfords place on the team, which ended its season with a second consecutive regional championship and a 4-0 loss to a solid Carlinville team in the semifinal game of the St. Anthony Sectional. Everybody was behind Seth. He is just one of those guys you believe in, whether it is his mentality, work ethic and everything in between, Jansen said. From the get go, frankly, he sucked. He kept demanding the best out of his coaches. He wanted input on what he could work on in practice, what he could do at home. Nobody ever came to me and doubted what he could do. Nobody got down on Seth. I think with that mentality it made our other players step up. He would never admit it, but mentally he really pushed our team. He stepped up and his positive influence wore off on the team. They are amazing, I couldnt do anything without them, Belford said of his teammates and coaching staff. From all the training and help they have put me through and all the advice from my teammates. When I have my head down they always try to pull me back up. Winning a regional championship was a special feeling for Belford, especially with how the Shoes finished. Teutopolis trailed Mt. Carmel 1-0 before Mitch Mienhardt tied the game and sent it to overtime, where Kyle Blievernicht and Ryan Westendorf each scored goals to secure a 3-1 win. It was a great game, Belford said. I was nervous most of the game because they were a goal up on us, but we got some momentum going and I was trying to get my hands on the ball every time it came to me. Then it went to overtime and Kyle and Westy scored. Great game and the emotions after it were crazy. Belford plans to return to the team for his senior season next fall. His coach said his personality, demeanor and modesty will take him just as far in life as it has so far on the soccer field. I always tell him if you work this hard in life with college, family and work you are going to have a good life, Jansen said. Sports translate into your life and future directly if you can keep a positive attitude and I see a lot of that in Seth.

Overtime field goal beats Hearts in final game

Allan Lewis News Report Staff Mahomet-Seymour walked off with a game-winning field goal as the Effingham Flaming Hearts walked away from senior night with a disappointing 17-14 loss and a final record of 2-7, missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons. A week after not putting up much of a fight against Mt. Zion, a team coach Mike McDonald said was similar to Fridays test on paper, the Hearts showed some heart despite falling short. Ultimately, we didnt have enough drives we finished to put points up on the board, McDonald said. We did a pretty good job in pass protection, hit some nice plays, but ultimately offensively, we just didnt put points on the board. Effingham used some lategame heroics to force overtime

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after playing a majority of the second half down 14-7. Caydin Vaughn broke through to score the game-tying touchdown with 4:31 remaining in regulation following a fumble by the Bulldogs at their own two-yard line, and Zach Millers extra point all but assured overtime at Klosterman Field. Miller set up the defensive opportunity after pinning the Bulldogs deep in their own zone with a punt. Zach did a nice job pinning them down deep and defensively we rose to the occasion and forced them into a situation where they ran a draw play and

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put the ball on the ground, McDonald said. The Bulldogs, though, made things even more interesting, driving down the field just to miss a field goal wide right with 58 seconds remaining in the game. It went to overtime, where Effingham had the first crack at it from the Mahomet-Seymour 10-yard line. The Hearts lost yardage on the first two plays of the drive, and Vail barely missed a pass to Drew Levitt in the back of the end zone to bring

EHS running back Caydin Vaughn plows ahead for the tying touchdown late in the second half of VARSITY/B2 Fridays game against Mahomet-Seymour. Effingham lost the game in overtime.

News Report Photo/Herb Meeker

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