Prep roundup: GHS soccer, J-L Volleyball get tourney wins, J-L football falls in opener

With the final high school football games wrapping up over the weekend, the first week of fall sports in full swing is in the books.

By now, hopefully you have heard about the stunning comeback victory by Gaylord football or the stellar performance by St. Mary's Dillon Croff. However, you may have missed some other top storylines, like the Gaylord soccer team's tournament win in Grayling or Johannesburg-Lewiston volleyball's three-peat in the J-L Invitational.

Here is a recap of what else is going on in Otsego County sports.

Gaylord soccer

Things are starting to come together for head coach Brandon Contreras and the Blue Devils soccer program.

The varsity team started with a 1-2 record through the first three games, beating Shelby 5-1 while falling to Ludington and Traverse City Chrisitan, 5-1 and 2-0 respectively.

The TC Christian game left a bad taste in the mouth of the players, according to Contreras.

"We had the upper hand most of the game but couldn't convert. The boys were frustrated with that," Contreras said.

That frustration led to some extra intense practices and fine tuning before a big display against Boyne City in their home opener on Thursday, Aug. 25 as the Blue Devils put together a 4-1 victory over the Ramblers.

Hector Gea Lozano led the way with two goals, while Ethan Ford and Charlie Holscher both added one of their own. Holscher, the team's leading goal scorer through four games (four goals), had a little extra on his goal as he beat the Boyne City keeper over the top from 40-yards out.

They rode the momentum of that win into the weekend as they participated in the Grayling Invite, putting together their best run of the season by defeating Oscoda 4-0 to open the day, beating Grayling 6-2 in the semis and dominating Standish-Sterling 9-1 in championship game to claim the tournament crown.

"I have a feeling we are going to do some good things this year," Contreras said. "I'm really enjoying working with this group of players and they are really enjoying their soccer. I'm glad we are just getting started."

The team scored 19 goals and conceded just three in the tournament victory while going 4-1 over five games last week. Coach Contreras noted the play of Holscher and Gea Lozano as well as Jared Hattis and goalkeeper Noah FItzgerald.

While certainly an excellent achievement for the Blue Devils to hang their hats on, coach Contreras still saw the weekend as more of an opportunity to get ready for conference play than anything.

"Although the wins and trophy were nice, Saturday was about getting ready for the Big North," Contreras said. "Fine tuning some things and also getting match fit."

Johannesburg-Lewiston Volleyball

Another day, another dominant performance for the Johannesburg-Lewiston volleyball team.

The Cardinals hosted a tournament on Friday, August 27, entering undefeated not just in matches, but in sets in 2022, yet to drop a single one.

That didn't change on Friday.

J-L went a perfect 6-0 on the day, not dropping a single set against Mio (25-13, 25-7), Tawas (25-15, 25-18), Ellsworth (25-11, 25-9), Cedarville (25-17, 25-20), Lincoln-Alcona (25-22, 25-20) or Tawas (25-16, 25-18) on its way to a third-straight J-L Invitational championship.

"I was very happy with our overall play as we held nearly everyone to under 20 points," head coach Kristine Peppin said. "We controlled the tempo of many games from start to finish and capitalized on lots of offensive opportunities our opponents gave us."

Jayden Marlatt continues to tear it up, adding 13 of her team-high 51 kills against Cedarville. She also had 32 serving points and 12 aces on the day. Other top performers included Grace Baragrey (27 kills, 35 serving points, 15 aces), Jocelyn Tobias (27 kills. 36 serving points, 12 aces) and Serena Hogle (96 assists, 35 serving points, 13 aces).

Marlatt has racked up 96 kills and 63 serving points as the Cardinals have built an 11-0 record out of the gates in 2022.

Johannesburg-Lewiston Football

After the bump in the road that was 2021, the J-L football team hoped to get the monkey off their backs with an opening week win over Mancelona.

Unfortunately, things didn't go the way they hoped.

The Mancelona Ironmen stormed out of gates, going up 16-6 after the first quarter and never let the score get any closer, eventually sealing a 44-22 win over the Cardinals in week one.

Mancelona senior Mykal Ballister led the way, rushing for 109 yards and three touchdowns. For Johannesburg, Nate Hummel finished with 109 rushing yards of his own, while the three J-L touchdowns came from Riley McVannel, Alex Gapinski and Benny Lindbert.

The Cardinals are traveling to the UP next week, set to take on St. Ignace on Friday, Sep. 2.

Gaylord volleyball

The Gaylord volleyball team suffered its first real setback of the 2022 season in face of tough competition at the Reed City Invitational on Saturday, Aug. 27.

In pool play, the Blue Devils fell in two close sets with Lake City, 25-23 twice, before splitting the next two matches with Evart (26-27, 25-19) and Ludington (14-25, 25-14).

In a point based system, that was good enough to advance to the gold bracket out of pool play, but again fell to Lake City to end their day in the quarterfinals.

"Wasn't the outcome we hoped for, but very high competition volleyball this weekend," head coach Brittany Cornish said.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: GHS soccer, J-L V'ball claim tourney wins; J-L football in action