School Sports

Two Vandalia programs earned big wins on Thursday.

The volleyball team swept Pana, 25-16, 25-23, in nonconference action for its 11th win of the season, and the soccer team earned its second win of the year by winning, 2-1, at Altamont.

Junior Johanna Walton and senior Megan Godoyo both had strong offensive games for the Lady Vandals (11-5), with nine and eight kills, respectivly, and the Godoyo had two key jump serve aces in the second set to erase a Pana lead.

Vandalia had five blocks in the game, despite Pana showing precision in its attack game.

In its first two seasons in the National Trail Conference, South Central's baseball team has earned the regular-season championship.

The Cougars knocked off Neoga, 8-5, on Thursday to finish the conference season with a 7-1 record to win their second championship.

South Central (8-3) lost to Altamont in the season-opener, but has since won seven straight conference games, including an 11-0 win against Windsor/Stew-Stras and a key 5-4 win against St. Anthony on Tuesday.

Brownstown/St. Elmo senior Jacob Behrends wasn't himself on Thursday night.

The senior pitcher was better than he's ever been.

Behrends shocked Patoka with 22 strikeouts in the title game of the Egyptian-Illini Conference Tournament, surrending just two hits in leading the the Bombers to a 3-0 victory.

The 22 punchouts set the program record, which was 19.

VANDALIA – For Johnnie Clift, being a part of last season’s championship team in the Egyptian-Illini Conference Tournament was a thrill.

Now a senior, he wants to lead Patoka to back-to-back titles.

Clift will have that opportunity on Thursday night, when the top-seeded Warriors meet No. 2 Brownstown/St. Elmo at 7 p.m. to decide the championship at Vandalia Mutual Field in a rematch of a 1-0 Patoka win from Sept. 11.

VANDALIA – With the two quarterbacks to be featured in this Friday night’s game having combined for 583 passing yards last week, the defensive backs better be ready to play.

Vandalia junior Collin Nestleroad and Litchfield senior Alex Hull will face off in a quarterbacking battle in Litchfield, as Vandalia searches for its first victory on the season against the 1-3 Purple Panthers, who have posted plenty of points this fall.

VANDALIA – It’s been awhile since the Vandals had a passing performance like they got from junior Collin Nestleroad last Friday night.

But his offensive showcase wasn’t enough to propel the Vandals to their first win of the season, as an inability to stop Roxana on third down allowed the Shells to pile up points in a 49-36 win to spoil Vandalia’s homecoming night.

VANDALIA – The Vandals offense was finally back at full strength, and with that came a return to its best offense.

And what that means is that senior C.J. Runkel’s production went up.

Runkel doubled his carries and nearly doubled his season yardage total during last Friday’s 49-36 loss to Roxana.

“C.J.’s leg is finally at 100 percent,” said coach John Stout. “He felt really good for the first time this week, and in our main offense, the fullback has to run a lot to set up other things.”

VANDALIA – Prior to Saturday’s Vandalia Tournament, Lady Vandals coach Allison Hall wasn’t sure that it was going to be a good day for her team.

With the homecoming football game and dance the night before, players could have sluggishly opened tournament play at 8 a.m.

But instead, they showed they were going to do everything they could to have a strong showing for the home fans.