Action is starting to come full circle for the 2024 fall sports season, and this coming week has a powerful short list of activities that are big for a trio of teams in Clay County.
I will start with the impressive season that the Sutton girls golf team has had. Just in their third season as a program, the Fillies have turned a fantastic corner under the direction of coach Sam Newmyer. This week is the final regular-season week before they head into the post-season where the Fillies are sure to make a strong, dare I say, “statement run” in district competition.
Sutton heads to Lincoln’s Hidden Valley Golf Course, located in east Lincoln. The C-4 District meet, set to be played Monday, Oct. 7, will take Sutton to Lincoln to battle in the 16-team tournament for the right to advance to the 2024 Class C State Girls Golf Championships at Lake Maloley Golf Course south of North Platte.
Teams entered in the C-1 tournament to do battle with the Fillies include: Ashland-Greenwood, Auburn, BDS, EMF, Elmwood-Murdock, Fairbury, Heartland, Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer, Johnson County Central, the host team, Lincoln Christian, Lincoln Lutheran, Palmyra, Superior, Syracuse, and Tri County.
I’m certainly no crystal ball reader, but I have to say, having the chance to watch the Fillies on several occasions this season, this could very well be the breakout season for Sutton to advance their first-ever state qualifying team. Sutton has improved steadily each and every season since starting their inaugural season in 2022.
Good luck coach and Fillies... keep your heads down, your minds focused, and give’em your best shot!
RIVALRY WEEK
I don’t think I have to mention that this week is a big rivalry week in Clay County. The setting is at Sandy Creek High School this Friday night when the 5-0 Cougars host the 3-2 Sutton Mustangs on the Cougars’ home turf. It’s homecoming week at Sandy Creek, and the Cougars will be celebrating the 2003 undefeated team during the contest, so this is definitely a big week in the county.
Sandy Creek comes into the game winners of 16 of their last 17 games, dating back to last season, and currently are 5-0 this season, while sitting atop the Class D-1 power point standings. The Cougars have outscored their opponents 261-42, collectively, an average of an impressive 52.284 points per game. If you go back to the past three seasons, 2022, 2023, and this season, Sandy Creek is a collective 22-5. Sutton started out the season with a 3-0 run, and the past two weeks have taken a couple of tough knocks on the field, falling 42-36 in overtime at Thayer Central, and last week, falling 34-30 at home to EMF. The Mustangs have outscored their opponents 241-110, an average of 48.222 heading into Friday night’s bout with the Cougars.
I’ve maintained over my 16 sports seasons with the Clay County News, that so often you can thrown out records when it comes to a Sandy Creek-Sutton battle, as I’ve seen too many times an upset happen, or nearly happen in this Clay County battle, no matter the sport.
Sandy Creek opened the year with a 60-8 win over Johnson-Brock, followed by a hard-fought 28-6 win over Shelby-Rising City. A pair of road wins at Alma (71-14), and at Tri County (59-6) led Sandy Creek to a total domination of Thayer Central last Friday night on their home turf, 43-8.
Sutton opened the year with a pair of road wins over McCool Junction (30-28), and Heartland (64-0), before coming home to claim an 81-6 homecoming win over Southern Valley, but have suffered the two losses in the past two weeks against Thayer Central and EMF.
One thing I am sure of that will come out of Friday night’s battle in the trenches, is the fact that this game will be super physical, between two well-coached teams that have multiple talents on both sides of the ball. It’s a “throw out the records” kind of feeling for this mid-season Clay County clash.
