Catholic Central Roundup
By Mike Ramczyk and Dana Ehrmann
The Hilltopper football team fell behind 14-0 at halftime Friday night in Whitefish Bay.
Offense has been an issue all season, as expected with first-year varsity starters at most skill positions, and passing woes helped lead to a 14-6 defeat against Dominican.
In the third quarter, senior running back Aaron Rueber, who finished with 101 rushing yards on 18 carries, scored from 9 yards out.
But the Toppers couldn’t muster anymore points, as quarterback Chad Zirbel completed five passes for a total of 10 yards in the game.
Dominican racked up 202 rushing yards and held the Topper offense to 3.3 yards per carry and only 123 total yards.
Zirbel led the team with 12 tackles, while Bryce Hocking added nine.
Rueber added an interception.
Catholic Central (1-3, 0-2 Metro Classic) returns to the Topper Bowl Friday night at 7 p.m. against Greendale Martin Luther.
Follow Sports Editor Mike Ramczyk on Twitter @mikeramczyk17 for live updates.
Runners compete in Whitnall
It was a week to forget for the Catholic Central runners.
The cross country team competed at the Whitnall Invite on Thursday, September 8 in Hales Corners Park.
“This was one of those weeks where we were looking to see some great results but the weather wasn’t having it,” said Coach Sean Birren.
He went on to say, “The kids ran hard across the board but the times were slow,” especially compared to the times clocked at the same invitational last year.
The girls team finished fifth out of six teams, and the boys, eighth out of eight.
Junior Brooke Bleser finished ahead of senior Kelly Aldrich by about one-tenth of a second. They placed 24th and 25th out of 39 runners, respectively.
The top male finisher for the Toppers was junior John Pum, placing 16th out of 58 runners with a time of 19:22.
Their next meet will be the Angel Invite at UW-Parkside on Saturday, September 17.
Volleyball falls to Shoreland
In their match on September 8, the girls of the Catholic Central volleyball team started out strong.
They won their first set against Shoreland Lutheran handily, 10-25.
Then, ball-handling errors derailed them.
“In the following sets, it was always point for point,” said Coach Bailey Racky.
She continued, “We are very successful when we control the game from the service line first and then just worry about our side. Right now, we make too many errors on our side.”
The Lady Toppers dropped the final three sets, 25-22, 25-23 and 27-25.
“We are working hard to polish up our side of the net.”
It’s in these tough matches that leadership impresses Coach Racky the most, though.
She likes that sophomore Emily Swanson does what it takes to win, and showed it against Shoreland Lutheran.
“At one point, she looked at me and I could tell she was getting frustrated, but she used that as motivation to get the team going,” said the coach.
Coach Racky also noted the way junior Anna Hackbarth has stepped up as of late as a captain.
“I know sometimes it is hard to be a non-senior captain, but she is a baller that I do not want to take off the court because I know she always works hard.”
Additionally, she praised sophomore Grace Spiegelhoff’s blocking abilities up the middle, and sophomores Miriam Ward and Elizabeth Klein for making the transition from JV to the varsity squad seamless.
“This far in the season, I am happy with how we have been playing. Even though our record (3-11) does not show success to some people, I feel like we have seen major growth already.”
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