DCHS Sports

Lady Demons drop fourth straight on the pitch

April 10, 2018 By DCHS Sports

Lady Demons drop fourth straight

By Shelton Burch

Sports Editor

The Dodge City Red Demons girls soccer team continued their earlyseason skid Monday night, losing to Great Bend 2-1.

It was also the Demons’ second straight 2-1 loss. With the season halfway over, the team sits at 2-6 (1-2).

“We’re possessing a lot better, we’re working on that, just we’re not finishing,” Red Demon head coach Saul Hernandez said. “We’re not finishing it. They got two good opportunities and they scored off of both of ‘em. We had about five, six and we only score one. That’s the difference. If we’re not gonna put ‘em away when we’ve got the opportunities, we’re not gonna win, and that’s it.”

Sophomore Alicia Monge scored the lone goal for the Red Demons, her fourth of the year.

Panthers sophomore Mayra Ramirez opened the scoring with 26:50 remaining

in the first half.

The 1-0 score held until Monge scored with 32:14 left in the second half of play.

The tied score didn’t last long: Ramirez gave the Panthers the lead for the final time less than a minute later, scoring her second goal of the game with 31:30 left to play.

Hernandez said the team hasn’t had a chance to practice finishing, but the speed at which Great Bend scored after Dodge City in Monday’s game shows the team still has to work on its intensity as well.

“Giving up a goal after getting one kind of shows you that we relax after that goal,” Hernandez said. “We can’t drop. We’re not up by five, we tied the game. We need to stay focused, and I thought we had that momentum after that goal but the other team didn’t put their heads down and they stuck one back to us.”

The Red Demons are next in action Thursday at Garden City. They take on the Lady Buffaloes at 5:30 p.m.

Monarchs sweep Red Demons

April 10, 2018 By DCHS Sports

Monarchs sweep Red Demons

By Shelton Burch

Sports Editor

The Dodge City Red Demons baseball team lost its third and fourth games straight games, losing 11-6 and 12-6 to Hays Thomas More Prep Marian Thursday night.

Both games were road games for the Red Demons.

Game one

In the first game, the Red Demons took a lead in the first inning and expanded it as much as 4-0 by the end of their half of the third.

The Monarchs battled back though, scoring three runs in the bottom of the third to cute the deficit to 4-3 before breaking the game open in the fifth with a seven-run bottom of the inning to take a 10-4 lead. The Demons tacked one in sixth, and

one in the seventh, but the Monarchs added one of their own in the sixth and kept the Demons otherwise distant on the scoreboard.

Senior Kaden Riekenberg had two hits, one run, and two RBIs in five at bats in the game. Junior Omar DonJuan matched his RBI total while recording one hit.

Freshman Alden Knedler matched Riekenberg’s hit total, scoring one run as well.Riekenberg also had the team’s only double, and one of its two triples, the other coming off the bat of junior Noah Sowers.

Sowers ended the first game with one run, one hit and one RBI.

Others who scored for the Red Demons included junior Keanin Camacho and junior Adrian Mendoza. Junior Blaine Winans , Camacho, and Mendoza all had stolen bases in the first game.

For the Monarchs, senior Tate Garcia finished with a game-high three RBIs coming off four at at bats. Senior Chase Werth had two RBIs,

as did senior Creighton Renz.

Game Two

In the second game, the Monarchs quickly put the Red Demons away, scoring seven runs in the top of the first inning to take a lead that was by itself enough,the Monarchs having won the game by a final score of 12-6.

Riekenberg, DonJuan, Blansett, Knedler and Camacho all had RBIs for the Red Demons, who scored two in the second inning, two in the fourth, one in the fifth, and one in the seventh.

Riekenberg had a team high two hits in the second game, while Sowers had a team-high two runs. Sowers had the team’s lone stolen base in the game.

The Red Demons are not in action again until April 13, when they take on Hutchinson in a doubleheader at Demon Field in Dodge City. The first game is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Demons swing through Hays

April 10, 2018 By DCHS Sports

Demons swing through Hays

By Shelton Burch

Sports Editor

After losing to Eisenhower and Derby by a combined score of 34-13 earlier in the week, the Red Demons softball team opened up conference play strong, sweeping the Hays Indians by scores of 12-4 and 6-5 Thursday night.

In the first game, seniors Jessica Olivarez and Grace Ruehle led the way for the Red Demons. Olivarez had one hit on one plate-appearance, also batting in a run.

Ruehle had an ever stronger game, reaching base all four times she came up. She was walked twice but hit home runs in her other two appearances, ending the first game with four RBIs while scoring three times herself. She now has three this season.

Sophomore Zabree Rodriguez had three RBIs with one hit and a run. Ruehle, sophomore Elise Helfrich and junior Madison Armstrong all had two hits. Armstrong had two RBIs.

For Hays, junior Kaitlyn Brown had a team-high two hits and two runs. Sophomore Madelyn Waddell, junior Mackenzie Fagan and junior Jaysa Wichers all had one RBI for the Indians. Waddell, Brown and sophomore Reanna Harman were the three players who scored the four runs for the Indians.

The Red Demons allowed three runs in the first inning, only recovering two in the bottom half of it, and trailed until the bottom of the third, when they scored one run to tie the game.

They tacked another run on in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead, but allowed one in the top of the fifth to make the score 4-4.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, they blew the game open, scoring five to take a 9-4 lead. They held Hays scoreless in the sixth, but scored three more to take the final lead of 12-4.

Red Demon freshman Raemie Lopp finished the first game with seven innings pitched, six hits allowed, four runs allowed (two of them earned) and six strikeouts. She was the winning pitcher.

Brown was the losing pitcher for Hays, having thrown four and two-thirds of an inning and having allowed seven hits, nine runs (seven of them earned), three walks and five strikeouts.

In the second game the Red Demons prevailed, but the Indians kept it closer.

After allowing two runs in the first, the Red Demons scored three in their half of the opening inning. Hays fought back though, scoring one in the third, and two in the fifth to take a 5-3 lead.

The Indians held that lead until the Red Demons scored three in the bottom of the seventh to steal the win.

The Red Demons managed just six hits in the second game, while the Indians recorded nine.

Sophomore Elise Helfrich and freshman Raemie Lopp each had a team-high two hits. Junior Madeline Kalscheur had a team-high two RBIs. Helfrich had an RBI, as did Ruehle.

The Red Demons are next in action April 12, when they host the Wichita Heights Falcons in a doubleheader. The first game is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Demons open season with 2nd-place finishes

April 10, 2018 By DCHS Sports

By Shelton Burch

Sports Editor

The Dodge City Red Demons boys tennis team opened their season with a pair of second-place finishes, coming in second as a team at Pratt March 29, before finishing second to Garden City in Great Bend March31.

Head coach Mark Sandbo said he was pleased with the team’s results in the first two events.

“I thought that Byrce was a little hampered with kind of the nagging ankle injury at Pratt and I thought when he had his mobility back he did some good things,” Sandbo said.

Harmon finished 2-2 in Pratt before finishing 5-0 in Great Bend in the No. 1 singles.

As the season progresses, Sandbo said the team will be working on identifying what new areas they can improve,many of which can only be identified through actual game-action.

“There becomes a familiarity with playing within your team, and when you get to those events, from a coach’s perspective, you get to really see what you need to work on,”Sandbo said.

Here are the results from the season-opening event in Pratt: – In the No. 1 singles, Bryce Harmon finished third at 2-2 – In the No. 1 doubles, Alex Ramirez and Cannon Bunkall finished second at 2-2 – In the No. 2 singles, Lakin Scheck finished second with a record of 3-1 – In the No. 2 doubles, Jonathan Austin and Josiah Thomas finished first with a record of 4-0 The team finished second overall behind Haven.

Here are the results from the team’s event at Veterans Park in GreatBend, Kansas.

– In the No. 1 singles, Byrce Harmon went 5-0In the No. 1 doubles, Alex Ramirez and Cannon Bunkall went 3-1- In the No. 2 singles, Lakin Scheck went3-2-In the No.2 doubles, Jonathan Austin and Josiah Thomas went 4-1 The team finished second overall behind GardenCity.

The Red Demons next tennis meet is scheduled for 3 p.m. April 12, in Hutchinson, Kansas at the Hutchinson Fairgrounds TennisComplex.

Red Demons lose to Hays TMP on late penalty kick

April 10, 2018 By DCHS Sports

Red Demons lose to Hays TMP on late penalty kick

By Shelton Burch

Sports Editor

A late penalty kick by Hays Thomas More Prep-Marian senior Kayla Vitztum lifted the Hays TMP Monarchs over the Dodge City Red Demons Thursday night by a score of 2-1.

The goal came on a penalty kick with 14:55 left in the second half after a hand ball was called on the Red Demons within the goalie box.

It was the Red Demons third straight loss, but was also a highly-contested one, with both teams getting scoring opportunities throughout both halves.

Head coach Saul Hernandez said there were still some positives to take away from the game for the Red Demons.

“I think we possessed the ball better than we have any game, and we’re starting to look for feeds, their movement’s getting better, our support’s getting better, we had more opportunities on goal than any other game, so there’s a lot of positives that come out from this,” Hernandez said. “That’s sometimes the way soccer goes: The ball just won’t bounce your way sometimes.”

Vitztum ended the game with two goals, having opened the scoring with 33:07 left in the first half to give her team an early 1-0 lead.

“She’s a player that controls the ball close and turns quick and knows what she’s gonna do before she gets the ball, and that makes her a dangerous player,” Hernandez said.

Those things made her difficult to contain, but most of her early runs deep into the Demon defense seemed to have occurred in the first half.

“I think we did a better job of handling her the second half,” Hernandez said.

Another strength for the Red Demons Thursday night was freshman Alicia Solis.

She got the first goal of her high school career Thursday night with 19:32 remaining in the first half, knotting the score at 1-1 at the time.

It was just one of many plays she made throughout the night though. With 16:12 left in the first, she got deep into Monarch territory to the goalkeeper’s left, but having gotten so deep near the the goal line she passed the ball back to another Red Demon who had a better angle and took a shot.

The Monarch goalkeeper made a save, but even as she went down and made it another Red Demon was running behind her in case she had allowed a rebound.

Hernandez said the center- mid’s are making runs and passing progressively better as well.

“The center-mid’s have been doing a better job finding the outsides, the outsides are making more runs and we’re doing a great job getting to the final third (of the field),” Hernandez said. “Once we get to the final third, that’s where we need a little bit of improvement on but that’s why we practice. We can work on it and improve throughout the season.

The loss sent the Red Demons to 2-5 overall this season. Hernandez said they are working

to just take it one step at a time.

“We’ve got two conference games next week and that’s gonna be our focus, taking one game at a time,” Hernandez said. “I think if we keep on doing the small things correctly we’ll eventually start clicking and we’ll get it put together.”