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School Sports

  • Vandals charge into playoffs

    PIASA – Vandalia had to work for each of its offensive yards on Saturday, but once the game was over, it was the Vandals who were celebrating an automatic berth to the playoffs.

    Senior Tim Ritchey had his best rushing and passing days of the season, accounting for four total touchdowns and 244 yards, as the Vandals picked up their sixth win of the season with a 36-14 victory at Southwestern.

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  • Football notes: Goal is to finish strong

    With postseason qualification secured, the Vandals will now shift their focus to getting the highest playoff seed that they can.

    And neither of the next two games will be easy wins.

    Vandalia travels to Pana (4-3) on Friday and will host Greenville (6-1) next Friday in the final two games before the postseason starts, and coach John Stout said that the opposition doesn’t matter as well as the team executes well.

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  • Lady Vandals get to 20 wins

    HIGHLAND – The Lady Vandals earned their 20th win of the season and senior RaeChelle Leiken was named to the all-tournament team as Vandalia placed fourth at the Highland Invitational this past weekend.

    Leiken recorded 39 kills and five aces in the five matches, during which the Lady Vandals went 2-3 to move their season record to 21-4.

    Vandalia and Wesclin were the only Class 2A schools in the tournament, and the Lady Vandals fell to Class 4A O’Fallon and Class 3A Breese Central and Highland, while defeating Wesclin and Class 3A Carbondale.

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  • Lady Vandals beat Litchfield again

    The Lady Vandals did little wrong last Thursday in defeating Litchfield for the second time of the season.

    Allowing the Lady Panthers very few points on their serves and using a precise attack in the game, Vandalia came away with an easy 25-8, 25-12 victory.

    “We didn’t make any mistakes that we could complain about,” said coach Allison Smith. “We’ve been focusing on only making one error and giving one point at a time.”

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  • Four players named all-conference in tennis

    Four Lady Vandals were named all-conference at Saturday’s South Central Conference tennis tournament.

    The doubles team of seniors Bailey Jones and Paige Ehrat defeated another Vandalia doubles team of seniors Emilie Britt and Jordan Boren in the doubles championship, giving all four players all-conference honors, and giving the Lady Vandals four of the six overall all-conference selections.

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  • Pitchers shine in NTC title game

    ST. ELMO – Every opportunity mattered in Tuesday’s National Trail Conference Tournament championship game between South Central and St. Anthony.

    And each team had several opportunities to score against the other team’s ace pitcher, but it was the Bulldogs who were able to scratch the most runs across the plate in a 4-1 win at Deken Park in St. Elmo.

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  • Hawkins returns to alma mater

    Kyle Hawkins, a 2010 Vandalia graduate, returned to his alma mater to pitch during an exhibition doubleheader on Saturday.

    Pitching for the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville’s club baseball team, Hawkins tossed three innings and allowed just his first earned run of the season during a 6-4 win against St. Louis University’s club team.

    Hawkins struck out three and allowed four hits during the game, which was the second in the doubleheader. SIUE won the first game, 8-6.

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  • Eagles are NTC consolation champs

    St. Elmo baseball’s team rallied to finish the season at .500 and take the consolation championship in the National Trail Conference Tournament.

    After falling to 6-8 on Sept. 18, the Eagles went 4-2 in the final six games, including a 2-1 mark in the NTC Tournament to better their tournament seed and finish the season 10-10.

    In the consolation championship on Monday, the Eagles fell behind 2-0 after the first inning, but made up for that in the third-fifth innings of an 8-3 victory.

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  • Vandal Leaders (Oct. 11)

    Football
    Single-game leaders
    •Rushing yards: Ambuehl, 171
    •Passing yards: Ritchey, 77
    •Rec. yards: Cowger, 67
    •Total TD: Ambuehl/Ritchey, 4
    •Tackles for loss: Lucken, 5
    •Team scoring: 48 points
    •Team rushing yards: 479
    •Team passing yards: 77
    •Team receiving yards: 77
    •Team tackles for loss: 13
    •Margin of victory: 42 (48-6)
    Season leaders
    •Rushing yards: Ambuehl, 875
    •Passing yards: Ritchey, 228

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  • Area Prep Roundup (Oct. 11)

    Soccer team falls
    in final home match
    In the final home match of the season, the Vandalia soccer team fell to Greenville, 7-0.
    The game on Saturday was a makeup from a rained out game originally scheduled for Sept. 25.
    Blake Torbeck had 11 saves in-goal for the Vandals (0-16-1, 0-8 SCC).

    Jr. Lady Vandals fall to Pana
    The Vandalia Jr. High eighth-grade girls basketball team fell in a low-scoring affair at Pana on Tuesday.
    Emma Meyer led Vandalia with five points in the 16-11 loss.

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