PORTA/A-C

Porta Bluejays

New era begins for Bluejays

With last year’s head mentor, Colin Arthalony, deciding to ride out on the coattails of his departing senior son (and who can blame him) and all stater Gavin, the PORTA-AC Central boys’ basketball will enter a new era.  Steven Price, a 2017 Buffalo Tri-City graduate, will take over as head coach, comfortable in the fact that a winning environment is already in place at PORTA-AC, stating “if you have a culture, you can do some great things and I’m lucky I don’t really have to reinvent the culture,” Price said. “I just hope to add to it.”

PORTA/A-C Wrestling Roster for 2023-2024 (Not in picture order): Freshman: Kasey Thompson, Elliott Gilreath, Josh Carr, Alexia Glover, Jayden Minor, Ashton Clark. Sophomore: Zach Bryant, Hunter King, Cory Hurst, Logan Baker, Justin Zimmermann, Russell Mattson, Hunter Morris, John McWhorter, Jamarion Thomas, Kyler Cannon, Austin Melton, Andrew Fulcher, William Cook, Owen Gilbert. Junior: Austin Burgett, Liam McCorkle, CJ Welbourne, Mike Minor, Dane Jiannoni, Aiden Kincade, Chad Nimmo, Rayne Ratliff. Senior: Cash Welbourne, Brayden Barner, Athony Hull, TylerMiller, Jacob Vogel, Cael Cotner, Logan Peterson, Issac Gunnian , Cam McCoy, Gaitlin Servis, VanceWitheral.

PORTA/A-C Central Wrestling 2023-2024 Preview

The PORTA-AC Central Wrestling team will have the unenviable task of replacing last year’s State Runner Up Bryar Lane as well as state qualifier Isaac Espenchied from last year’s 28-10 team.  However, head coach Jeff Hill has not amassed a 767-188 record over 32 years of coaching by happenstance.

While a host of Tigers look on, Bella Palmer tips the ball over the outstretched hands of a couple of Rockets.

High School volleyball roundup – Beardstown, PORTA/A-C, Triopia results

All three Cass County high school volleyball teams finished up their regular seasons last week and will be competing in regionals this week.  

   Beardstown wrapped up their season with two home matches. On Monday, the Tigers fell in a tough three set match to West Central 25-17, 19-25, 18-25. Against a talented Brown County team on Thursday in the Annual Volley for the Cure match, the Tigers treated a nice crowd to a good comeback in game two but fell in straight sets 15-25, 22-25. Beardstown, now 9-25 on the season and seeded 11th in the regional, was scheduled to take on the 5th seeded Macomb Bombers at their place on October 23 to open postseason play.

volleyball

Two times the titles for Bluejay Volleyball

The PORTA-AC Central Lady Bluejay volleyball team continues to play excellent volleyball, winning tournaments over back-to-back weekends at Beardstown and Waverly.  Counting a win the week before the Beardstown Tourney and two wins between the tourneys, the Lady Bluejays are riding a ten-game win streak and sit at 24-6 on the season.

volleyball

BHS and PORTA/A-C Volleyball results

Three wins and two losses last week has the PORTA-AC Central volleyball team sitting pretty with a 12-5 overall record and a 4-1 mark in the Sangamo Conference.  The Lady Bluejays opened the week with a 25-15, 25-16 conference win over Auburn on the road.  Jayce Privia had eight kills and seven digs, Cassie Cox had three aces and four blocks, Mikaela Clary had three aces, Chloe Maltby had seven digs and Caitlyn DeFreezer had 13 assists in the win.

Pictured on the left is PORTA/A-C Central Sectional Golf Qualifiers Brady Kinney (left) and Trace Donnan. Pictured on the right is Austin Strubbe, shown with Redbird Coach Jeff Bennett, qualified for the Sectional Golf Meet for Virginia-Triopia.

Three area golfers make sectionals

PORTA-AC Central senior golfer Brady Kinney has qualified for the IHSA Class 1A State Finals by shooting an 82 in the Auburn Sectional.  Kinney claimed the Auburn Sectional’s final individual spot and will compete in the finals starting on Friday, October 6 at Prairie Vista Golf Course in Bloomington.  

The PORTA-AC Central golf team after finishing in second place at the Sangamo Conference Tournament. (L/R) Keagan Dale, Griffin McClure, Trace Donnan, Brady Kinney, Brody Pettit, and Brody Landon.

PORTA/A-C Golf rolls on

Last week was a busy one for the PORTA-AC Central boys’ golf team as they roll closer to the postseason.  

The week started with them hosting the North Mac Panthers on a typically breezy day at Shambolee Golf Course last Tuesday.  Both the varsity and JV teams played very well.  The Jays took home the win with a team score of 163 on the back nine.  PORTA A-C was led by medalist Trace Donnan who shot a two over par 38.  He was followed by fellow senior, Brady Kinney, at 39.  Keagan Dale fired a 41 and Brody Pettit rounded out the Varsity scoring with a 45.  Griffin McClure shot a 48 and Brody Landon shot a 49.  North Mac had a team score of 174.  In JV action, Nash Donnan and Kolin Johnson led the way with a pair of 48’s.  Drew Carter shot 52, Colton Wankel shot 58, Avery Jockisch shot 59, and Dillon Stremsterfer had a 62.

The PORTA-AC Central freshman volleyball team is pictured with the First Place Plaque from last week's Virginia Tournament.

PORTA/A-C Volleyball on win streak 

The PORTA-AC Central volleyball team pushed their winning streak to eight games and their overall record to 9-3 with two wins last week.  

On the road at Riverton last Tuesday, the Bluejays flew past the Hawks 25-12, 25-16 to win in straight sets.  Carson Arthalony had seven kills and two blocks and Caitlyn DeFreezer had 13 assists and a block.  Jayce Privia also had seven kills, Mikaela Clary had four aces, Chloe Maltby had 13 digs and Shae Bell handed out 11 assists in the win.  At home last Thursday the Jays won two close ones over their archrivals, the Athens Warriors 25-21 and 25-19.

football

BHS, Triopia, PORTA/A-C lose big

It was a week that is best quickly forgotten for area football fans as the three Cass County teams were beaten by a combined score of 156 to 6.  Beardstown traveled to Camp Point and were held to zero yards of offense in a 60 to 0 shellacking.  Central meanwhile racked up 343 yards of total offense.  It was 26 to 0 after one quarter and 46 to 0 at the half with Panther coach Brad Dixon taking a knee to end the half rather than run up the score.  Both teams played their JV squads almost exclusively in the second half with things not getting much better for the Tigers other than the swift ending due to the running clock.  The lone bright spot for BHS was the play of freshman Shadrach Mahfina who played good minutes in both halves and led the Tigers with seven solo tackles and six assists to serve notice that he will be a good varsity player sooner rather than later.  Beardstown, now 1-2 on the season, will look to get back on track at home this Friday night against 2-1 Routt Catholic.  The Rockets lost to Hardin Calhoun to open the season then beat North Greene and Triopia.

golf

PORTA/A-C Central Golf

The PORTA-AC Central Boys Golf Team headed west last Tuesday to Scripps Park Golf Course in Rushville for a meet with the host Rockets, the Virginia-Triopia Redbirds and the Havana Ducks. The host Rockets took the win with a team score of 159, led by medalist Reed Fretueg who shot a nifty 1 under 34. The Bluejays followed in 2nd place with a team score of 167. Leading the Jays was Brady Kinney and Griffin McClure who both carded 41 playing the front nine. They were followed by Trace Donnan with 42 and Brody Landon at 43. The JV Jays also played that afternoon and posted some very impressive early season scores. They were led by Kolin Johnson with a 52 and Landon Johnson with a 54. Nash Donnan fired a 55 and Drew Carter rounded out the scoring with a 64. Coach Neil Gurnsey had the following comments after the round. “Hats off to Rushville. They are a good team and Coach Wise is doing a great job with that program. They will make some noise in the postseason. We played well and had a couple guys step up for us today. That is something we will need on a regular basis as the season goes on. I was also very pleased with the scores from our JV team this afternoon. Those guys will be counted on a lot next year and are improving each and every day.” The team currently holds a record of 5 wins and 1 loss.