Bay City fall sports roundup: Bay County rivals split everything down the middle

BAY CITY, MI – A look at the high school sports scene in the Bay City area for Oct. 2, 2024. Bay City area coaches are asked to submit results, highlights and comments the night of each event by emailing lthomps2@mlive.com.

TENNIS: GARBER, CENTRAL CALL IT EVEN

It was a day of shared celebration for Essexville Garber and Bay City Central.

Both sides honored their outgoing players with a combined Senior Day at Jopke Courts then dueled to a 4-4 tie in their Bay County boys tennis rivalry.

“All eight matches were close and competitive, just like most Bay County matches are,” Garber coach Joe Ricard said. “Good play combined with great sportsmanship was the order of the day.”

To underscore the parity of the matchup, each team won two singles flights and two doubles flights. Garber scored singles wins from No. 1 Blake Wittbrodt and No. 4 Maddox Schmidt while Central landed singles victories from No. 2 Jake Thompson and No. 3 Brendan Dine.

The Dukes won with No. 2 doubles Colton Prichard and Matt Pawlaczyk and No. 3 Carter Radtke and Henry Nickerson. Central countered with doubles wins from No. 1 Jacob Hadd and Brayden Szczepanski and No. 4 Ethan Grandy and Hudson Grandy.

Garber honored seniors Wittbrodt and Sawyer Bebow while Central recognized 12th graders Thompson, Dine, Hadd, Brayden Beson, Lucas Gourd, Derek Schwab, Blake Volk and Ian Anderson.

SOCCER: WESTERN WINS FOR SENIORS

They had to dig a little deeper.

But Bay City Western found the grit to win on Senior Day, outdueling Davison 3-2 in Saginaw Valley League play.

“The team worked hard for the win,” Western coach Kyle Jean said. “We are a little bit hit with injuries, so the whole team worked hard for each other. It was a close game and we were happy to get a win for our five seniors.”

Blake Wrzesinski scored a pair of goals and Weston Carter added the final tally as the Warriors prevailed. Luke Shotwell delivered two assists and Jacob Grzegorczyk one for Western, which led 2-1 at the half.

Logan Courier came through with six saves in the win.

The Warriors honored Brian Rousse, Blake Dore, Kaiden Ruggles, Cole Scott and Brady Zieroff on Senior Day.

SOCCER: GLENN ROLLS PAST LAKER

Asher Clark came through with a five-goal game to power John Glenn past Laker 6-1 in a non-league matchup.

Landon Kogelman added a goal in the win while Clark, Brady Priemer, Drew Bailey, Ruben Rivera, Paul Nori and Carter Glaza each notched an assist.

SOCCER: STANDISH CAN’T STOP OGEMAW

Standish-Sterling couldn’t stop Ogemaw’s march to the first Jack Pine Conference crown, falling to the Falcons 4-1.

Ogemaw got two goals from Josiah Devine and one apiece from Angel Potter and Aaron Kruszynski to clinch the championship.

Standish drew within 2-1 when Ben Briggs scored off an assist from Caleb Emans, but the Falcons countered with two more goals to close it out.

“I continue to be impressed by the Panthers’ work rate and grit,” Standish coach Doug Dahn said. “My guys gave everything they had.”

VOLLEYBALL: GARBER WINS IN THREE

Essexville Garber went to work for a 3-0 victory over Alma in Tri-Valley Conference Red action.

The Dukes (27-10-1, 2-1) got 32 assists, 10 digs and three aces from Ella Kokaly and 16 kills and 10 digs from Jeana Lenhard. Audrey Ball tallied nine kills, Rylee Jatczak 12 digs and Emily Hall three aces in the win.

VOLLEYBALL: GLENN SWEEPS THE DAY

It was a banner day for John Glenn as it downed Bridgeport in three sets, completing an all-level sweep.

Payton Bauer delivered eight kills for the Bobcats while Kasey Studniarz added six kills.

CROSS COUNTRY: FOUR PRS FOR PINCONNING

Pinconning posted four personal-bests while competing at Shepherd.

Dayne Ivey, Sean Donahue and Ashton Enciso all notched new PRs for the boys while Kate Hedge established her new low for the girls.