The Eureka High School boys played the Erie Red Devils last Monday night in a make-up game for an earlier scheduled one that was postponed due to weather. The Tornadoes, who shot poorly from the field, especially in the first half, were beaten by the Devils 39-55.
The game began with a rough first quarter for the Tornadoes, who couldn’t buy a basket while the Red Devils hit just about everything. Eureka scored a miserable 3 points in the quarter which ended with the Eureka squad trailing by 20 points, almost an exact repeat of their previous game against Fredonia. The Tornadoes shot better in the second quarter and tightened up defensively to match the Devils point for point, taking a 20 point deficit into half- time.
The second half was much better with the Tornadoes outscoring the host Devils 22-18, but the first quarter deficit was too much for the Tornadoes, leading to the final deficit of 16 points. Laken Valentine led the Tornadoes with 16 points, followed by Cole Ptacek with 10, Tristan Milner, Kotah Davis, and Tanner Biering with 3 each, Brody Mitchell with 2, and Tyson Coon and Easton Mead with one each.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final EHS 3 14 6 16 39 Erie 23 14 13 5 55
The Tornadoes then traveled to Pleasanton Thursday night for the first round of substate. Although they lost the game 74-67, and thus ended their season, they played perhaps their best game of the season. Seemingly, for the first time all year, the Tornadoes were hot out of the gate, dropping 21 points on the bigger Bluejays in the first quarter. The second quarter they cooled off significantly but still managed to take a 2-point lead into halftime. The Bluejays shot better in the second half while limiting the Tornadoes to 9 points in the 3rd quarter before the local boys exploded again in the final frame with 25 points. It was not enough, but the 12th seeded Tornadoes managed to end their season by putting a major scare in the 5th seeded Bluejays.
Tyson Coon led the Tornadoes with 21 points and Laken Valentine followed with 20. Cole Ptacek added 13 and Tanner Biering had 9. Peyton Hare had 4 points to finish the scoring. Valentine and Biering, the lone seniors on the Tornado squad, finished their high school careers with a flourish. They will be missed next season.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final EHS 21 12 9 25 67 PHS 12 19 16 27 74
