Sports

Putting games and eventually matches into the win column continues to elude El Reno High School’s volleyball team after a close 3-1 loss to Noble last week.

The 23-25/19-25/25-16/22-25 setback dropped El Reno to 3-13 on the season. The Indians are now 1-2 in the Suburban Conference standings with their ninth straight loss.

El Reno had opportunities to win the first two games but blew a 9-2 lead in the opening game.

The Indians then held a 23-21 lead before allowing four straight points by the Bears, three of those on errors.

The longest road trip of the season for El Reno High School’s fast-pitch softball team produced its biggest doubleheader sweep as the Indians ventured into the Oklahoma panhandle for the first time since 2021.

The eight-plus-hour round trip to Guymon netted a 12-3 and a 13-5 win over the Tigers that catapulted El Reno from fifth into third place in the District 5A-2 standings with a 7-4 record.

El Reno leap-frogged both Guymon and Noble for the third spot with the sweep.

El Reno High School’s volleyball team is still seeking its first win for the month of September after Santa Fe South, ranked 12th in Class 5A, rallied for a 3-1 win over the Indians.

The St. Bernards took the first game inside Jenks Simmons Field House, 25-22, after watching El Reno rally from a seven-point deficit to make it a two-point game.

El Reno would win a see-saw second game by a 25-22 margin to even the match at 1-all. Santa Fe South, which defeated the Indians earlier in the year at the EHS Invitational, took the final two games by scores of 25-11 and 25-15.

Heading into district play, El Reno High School’s football numbers for the season on both sides of the football are better than a year ago at this point.

Both El Reno High School’s cross-country teams continue to show marked improvements in both times and overall finishes two meets into the 2023 season.

The El Reno girls placed ninth overall in the recent Mike Driskell Turkey Creek Invitational, hosted by Hennessey, with an overall score of 212 points.

The teams had an overall time of one hour and 28.37 minutes, which broke down to an average time of 17:43 per runner.

Emmary Elizondo led the team with a time of 14:51 for the two-mile course at Turkey Creek Golf Course, to place 23rd overall.

Dalton Belcher belted out a pair of doubles and drove in four runs as Calumet High School’s baseball team closed out the fall regular season with a 14-1 win over Sentinel.

The win sends the Chieftains, ranked second in the state in Class B, into the postseason on a nine-game win streak. Calumet improved to 22-2 on the season and was set to host Dover and Carney in the District 2 Championships.

Belcher’s effort was part of a 14-of-27 (.518) showing at the plate for Calumet. Kingston Arnold logged three base hits, while Hunter Arnold and Kaleb Thiessen added a double each.

While Union City has been hit by the rainout bug, Calumet High School’s fast-pitch softball team was able to sneak in a game with cross-county rival Okarche last week.

The Chieftains slipped to 4-18 on the season with a 15-2 loss to the Warriors. Calumet was scheduled to close out the regular season with a road game at Okeene.

Laney Rogers’ team will travel to Lookeba-Sickles, ranked 10th in the state, for the Class B, District 12 Championships.

Redlands Community College women’s soccer team returns home Sunday to host Northeastern Oklahoma A&M seeking an end to a three-match losing streak.

All three losses came against the upper echelon of the NJCAA Region 2 standings, the latest a 4-1 setback to Eastern Oklahoma State College, ranked third in the league.

The three-goal setback dropped Redlands to 1-6 in the standings and 1-7 for the season.

The Cougars slipped to eighth in the league behind NEO.

While it may seem odd calling three regular-season games your preseason, that’s just the philosophy being taken by El Reno High School’s football team coming out of its bye week.

“We’re excited to get into district play. District games are what gets you into the postseason and the first three games were our preseason. Now it’s time to take them one game at a time and go from there,” said El Reno head coach Russell Cook.

El Reno had last week off due to its zero week defeat of Chickasha in the U.S. 81 Battle.

Facing the second of three matches against the upper echelon of the NJCAA Region 2 standings, Redlands Community College women’s soccer team was handed another shutout loss by Seminole State. The Trojans dropped Redlands to 1-6 on the season and 1-5 in the standings with a 7-0 win, which was the program’s 100th.

Redlands was limited to two shots, one each from El Reno natives Carlie Golden and Payton Brickey.

Kaitlynn Runnels was in net for the Cougars, allowing all seven goals against 17 saves.

RCC will host NEO Sunday at 2 p.m.