EAST PALESTINE OH-
BOARDMAN OH- The Boardman girls golf team had a great win against Howland on Tuesday 184-237.
Zoey Fick- Mills was the low score for the day with a 39 and coming in with the second lowest score was Sophia Rivera who shot a 43. Emily Choleva shot a 49 and Senior Kate Pendleton shot a 53.
Spartans are back on the course on Saturday as they’ll compete in the Mahoning Valley Girls Golf Classic at Yankee Run Golf Course in Brookfield. It is set to start at 12:00.
*Contributed By Lee Christman at boardmanathletics.org
HUBBARD OH- In what is so far the best match of the young season Howland escaped a thriller in Hubbard with a 5 set victory. In a match where Howland had a 2-0 lead, they had to pull some last second magic to win set 5. (25-13 25-12 21-25 17-25 21-19)
Sianna Dykes led the Tigers out of the middle with a powerful attack. She finished with 14 kills. Courtney Clark was in double figures as well with 10 kills. Alexia Spangler served the ball well and finished with 5 aces. The Tigers had 15 aces as a team.
Hubbard never gave up after being dominated in sets one and two. Their defense took a step up as out of nowhere they started keeping every attack from the Tigers off the ground. With some clutch kills from Sydney Ward, and Lauren Komorek gave Hubbard sets 3 and 4. Ashley Rodgers led the Eagles with 6 kills.
Howland will have a few days off before they travel to Fitch on Thursday. Hubbard gets right back to it on Tuesday as they travel to Poland
BELOIT OH-
West Branch Dominates at Home
The West Branch Warriors volleyball team has experienced a pair of tri-matches in back to back Saturdays. Trying to keep with a running theme, as The Warriors took on Pirates and Raiders last week, they welcomed in some cats this week. The first matchup on the docket was with The Howland Tigers. The two sets between the two teams played out almost exactly the same! With West Branch grabbing an early lead, followed by The Warriors building on that lead, before eventually leading by 10 points the first two sets. Howland attempted a comeback both times, but fell short to the balance of West Branch’s offense, as girls like Claire Brunner, Adele Peters, Mikaylyn Fitts and Olivia Showalter were attacking from all angles, ultimately leading to a match victory for The Warriors.
Next, it was a battle with The Struthers Wildcats, who were coming off a three set match with Howland looking sharp. Exchanging blows with The Warriors in a back and forth set for a large part of it. However, West Branch did what they do best! Working as a cohesive unit, locking down the defense and stepping up on offense; The Warriors eventually went on a late run to win the first set by 8 points. Keeping that momentum rolling right into the second set, West Branch looked very similar to how they did against The Tigers. Leaving little doubt in Set 2, The Warriors grabbed their second straight set win of the day to go to 4-0 on the young season. Staying right in Beloit, The Warriors will welcome in Minerva on Tuesday, August 30th for their first Eastern Buckeye Conference (EBC) game!
Set Scores vs. Howland
S1: West Branch 25 – 14 Howland
S2: West Branch 25 – 15 Howland
Set Scores vs. Struthers
S1: West Branch 25 – 17 Struthers
S2: West Branch 25 – 14 Struthers
*Contributed By YSN’s Ty Bartell
BELOIT OH-
The Howland Tigers are a volleyball team that has defined a sort of scrappy play over the last few years. Featuring some seniors that have been mainstays on this tiger program the last couple of seasons, with names such as Courtney Clark and KyRenae Matlock. Howland is in an interesting boat, one that consists of a decent mix of the seasoned experienced veterans and girls getting their first taste of varsity volleyball.
In their first matchup of a Saturday tri-match, The Tigers showed some of their areas of inexperience, as West Branch was able to come away with a straight set victory. But in the second matchup, directly following the first, Howland had seemed to have talked things over and figured out the issue. Grabbing firm control of the first set over a Sturthers team, defeating them by 8 points in Set 1. The Wildcats showed fight and grit as they battleted back and forth with Howland in Set 2, before grabbing two clutch points down the wire to slay The Tigers in Set 2 by a score of 25-23. Set 3 looked to be on the same trajectory as the previous set, with Struthers battling neck and neck with Howland, at one point grabbing another late lead on The Tigers. However, it was the seniors who showed their stripes and weathered the storm down the stretch, with their leadership being shown on full display. TIgers took Set 3 and the match victory to split the day 1-1 at West Branch.
The next time Howland (3-1) will be in action is Monday, August 29th against The Hubbard Eagles (0-2). While Struthers (1-4) will go to Niles (1-2) to take on The Red Dragons on Tuesday, August 30th.
Set Scores
S1: Howland 25 – 17 Struthers
S2: Howland 23 – 25 Struthers
S3: Howland 25 –19 Struthers
*Contributed By YSN’s Ty Bartell
YOUNGSTOWN, OH- The Howland Tigers improved to 2-0 this season after beating Chaney in straight sets. Sianna Dykes led the Tigers with 6 kills, and Amia Silvers followed close behind with 4 kills. The Tigers served the volleyball very well, with Courtney Clark recording 9 serving aces throughout the match. Sonia Pitts also had 5 serving aces to contribute to the serving parade.
Set Scores:
Set 1: 25-7
Set 2: 25-6
Set 3: 25-5
Howland has a big match coming up on Thursday, as the Tigers host Canfield at 7 P.M. The Cardinals look to bounce back after two opening losses to premier volleyball programs of Archbishop Hoban and Girard.
HUBBARD, Ohio – In a matchup dominated by Howland since the 2018 District Final, a game which Hubbard defeated the Tigers 3-2, coach Stilles’ squad has taken the last 3 matches against Hubbard by a combined score of 12-0.
Hubbard would refuse to be shutout in this matchup however, netting the opening goal of the match with a Jacob Jackson header just under four minutes into the night.
Trailing for the first time this season, the Howland Tigers’ senior, Jak Kenney, would respond with and unanswered hat trick to put his squad ahead 3-1. Kenney now has four goals on the year.
With just over eight and a half minutes remaining, Hubbard freshman, Trent Reinard, would find the back of the net to draw the Eagles within one. Howland would halt the Eagles comeback effort there, holding onto the victory 3-2.
GOAL SCORERS
HUBBARD:
Jacob Jackson: 1 goal
Trent Reinard: 1 goal
HOWLAND:
Jak Kenney: 3 goals
UP NEXT
Hubbard: Finishing their homestand without a win, the Hubbard Eagles will hit the road for a match against the West Branch Warriors, Thursday, August 25th.
Howland: Following their win, the Howland Tigers will head back home for a matchup with the Lakeview Bulldogs, this Thursday, August 25th. Howland has won the last 4 matches, against Lakeview, in a row.
*Contributed By YSN’s Jamie Thomson
BELOIT OH-
The girls varsity soccer team started the season off the right note tonight with a 4-0 shutout of the Howland Tigers at West Branch High School. The squad used an even offensive performance with a strong defense scoring two goals in each half en-route to the four goal victory.
Scoring goals for the Warriors were Daphne Snyder, Kennedy Berger, Sophia Gregory, and Chloe Dennison. Gregory, Sam Koneval and Dennison added assists for the winning squad.
Zoe Sanders pitched the shutout in goal making five saves for West Branch.
In JV action the Warriors and Tigers played to a 0-0 tie in 1/2 of action. Emmy Jones had three saves for West Branch in the shutout.
The Warriors are off the rest of the week and will be back in action next Monday August 29th. The JV team will host Alliance at 5 PM with the varsity taking on Berkshire at 7:00 PM also at home.
*Contributed By Ryan Wolf at wbathletics.org
WARREN OH- At Old Avalon in Warren the Rams improved to (8-2, 3-2) on the season by shooting a season best 173, to beat Jackson Milton (181), and Howland (182). Ridge was lead by Trey Rigley 38, Jackson Geddes 43, Keaton Kucera 45, AJ Sandy 47, Chas Colantone 48, Jack Gillie 49.
Next up at ODM tomorrow vs Lowellville at 4.
*Contributed By Shawn Brown at ramsathletics.org
HOWLAND, OH – A Week 1 rivalry always brings out the best in teams, and the Niles Red Dragons proved that on the road against bitter archrival Howland. They used a well-balanced spread attack en route to a 21-7 victory in some Thursday night action.
After both teams started with a three-and-out, Niles put in a nice, methodical drive, thanks to the elusive running of star junior Antuan Gardner. With 7:28 to go in the first, the Red Dragons in a goal-line situation, Gardner took the ball into the endzone for a 1-yard touchdown. Keyshon Talley then hit the extra point to make it a 7-0 ball game. Gardner finished the night with 95 yards on 24 carries, for a 4.0 average.
The Niles hard-hitting defense made it really tough for Howland to find a rhythm on offense. They held the Tigers to 206 yards of total offense (177 passing, 29 rushing), all while only giving up 5 first downs on the night. Howland had some good potential with some long strikes from quarterback John Perry, but the Tigers were doomed by four game-changing turnovers; two fumbles in the first half and two interceptions in the second half. Perry finished the night 7/21 with 177 yards and 2 picks.
Another successful drive was then produced by Niles in the second quarter, who would finish with 324 yards of total offense (202 passing, 122 rushing). Another key component of the offense was quarterback Anthony Budak, an Olmsted Falls transfer. He was an impressive 19/26 for 202 yards and a touchdown. He put Niles ahead even further with a 6-yard QB draw for paydirt. Another successful Talley extra point made it a 14-0 game heading into intermission.
Howland then had their best drive of the game at the start of the second half. It only took them three plays to score when on a 3rd & 22, Perry hurled a deep ball, which was then hauled in by Nicholas Leasure, who then sprinted down the left sideline for an 80-yard touchdown. Jack Litton then hit the extra point to bring it to within 14-7.
The Tigers defense then made an important goal line stand when they clogged up Antuan Gardner at the goal line, holding him just short of the endzone. This was as close as the Tigers would get, however, as the offense stalled on another three-and-out and gave Niles great field possession as a result. This Niles drive ended with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Budak to Kristopher Hrosar, who converted from quarterback to wide receiver. The Red Dragons, aided by the two second-half interceptions, then ran the clock out and celebrated their hard-fought victory over their bitter rivals.
Coach Jim Parry and the Red Dragons improve to 1-0 with the opening night victory. This victory is their first over the Tigers since 2019. Niles will now get ready for another tough opponent in Alliance in their home opener next Friday night down at Bo Rein Stadium. They defeated the Aviators last year in a thriller 19-16 down in Alliance.
Coach Steve Boyle and the Howland Tigers will drop to 0-1 with the loss. They will now have to travel out to Ravenna next Friday night to take on the Ravens. Howland lost a close game at home last year to the Ravens 20-13.
*Contributed By YSN’s Noah Ricks