BHS boys soccer aims at state

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| Thursday, May 26, 2005 3:07 AM CDT | () comments

Dearrel Bates

The Bettendorf Bulldogs boys soccer team stayed unbeaten and moved a step closer to its ultimate goal of another state championship.

The school has won four titles since the boys soccer team won the first last spring.

The Bulldogs dropped Pleasant Valley 3-1 on Tuesday in a substate semifinal matchup.

The the No. 1-ranked team in Iowa Class 2A did it by dropping the hammer early to set up a Thursday matchup with Davenport North at North Scott High School for a trip to state.

Forward Charlie Schwartz opened the scoring early as he received a pass from Tim Jackson in the Spartans' box, kicked the ball around goalkeeper Andy Lehman before hopping over him and tapping the ball into the net just 1 minute, 23 seconds into the contest.

"A big part of winning is getting the first goal to start off the game," said Jackson, who was playing in his second game since missing a few weeks with a rib injury.

Jackson made it 2-0 after receiving a pass from Chris Bassler and putting it in with 10:33 left in the first half.

The Bulldogs (17-0) fired 16 shots at Pleasant Valley, while the Spartans (14-6) managed just seven in a game that was slowed by 26 fouls.

PV got its lone goal on a crossing pass from Alex Molinari that Matt Ryder headed in late in the second half.

PV girls back to state

Pleasant Valley's girls golf team is going back to the state tournament.

The Spartans, who earlier this spring had captured the Mississippi Athletic Conference title, added the Class 4A regional championship Monday at the Burlington golf Club.

Pleasant Valley nabbed one of the two available state tourney berths by shooting a 358 total, nine strokes better than runner-up Iowa City High.

Both teams now advance to the 36-hole final n 18 holes at the Jester Park golf Course near Granger on Tuesday and 18 holes at the Otter Creek golf Course in Ankeny on Wednesday.

"Last year, I think we were excited to be there,'' Pleasant Valley coach Barb Pischke said. "This year, I think we have higher expectations.''

The high expectations come from the Spartans' balanced scoring. Only 11 strokes separated the team's low score from the high score among the six golfers. A team's top four scores count toward a team's total.

Jungha Park and Emily Paper led Pleasant Valley with rounds of 87 and 89, and are now eligible to contend for medalist honors at state. Other scores posted by the Spartans included Courtney Bohn 90, Seonha Park 92, Stephanie Newport 93 and Kelsey Jipp 98.

Bettendorf finished fifth among the 12 schools. The Bulldogs' scores included Abby DeVries 93, Jayme Michel 94, Kelly Mortier 102, Ashley Voelliger 102 and Denise Mercier 103.

Tennis teams sidelined

Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley's boys and girls tennis teams fell short of qualifying for the Iowa Class 2A state team tennis tournament last weekend.

After the Bettendorf boys defeated Pleasant Valley 7-2 in a semifinal round match, the Bulldogs fell 5-2 to Iowa City West in the final. The last two doubles matches were not completed once the final outcome had been decided.

In the girls portion, it was the same deal. The Bulldogs blanked Muscatine 9-0 in a quarterfinal, but Iowa City West took the measure of the Bulldogs 5-1 in the semifinals. Iowa City West had advanced with a victory over Davenport Central.

Although the teams have been eliminated, the individual singles and doubles tournaments are upcoming. The boys meet is this weekend in Cedar Rapids while the girls tourney is scheduled June 2-3 in Des Moines.

Burge, McVey finish 2nd

A pair of second-place finishes n one in the girls division and one in the boys n by Bettendorf athletes highlighted the first coed state track and field meet last weekend in Des Moines.

Bettendorf's Shannon Burge was the runner-up in the Class 4A girls 100-meter dash while Quinn McVey of the Bulldogs was second in the 4A boys shot event. Burge's time was 13.09 seconds, losing to Faith Burt of Cedar Falls while McVey had a toss of 54 feet, 9� inches, trailing only Davenport Central's Julian Vandervelde who threw 56-3� to win the event.

Pleasant Valley's Stef Winslow was sixth in the shot and seventh in the discus, teammate Betsey Hoschied was seventh in the high jump and the Spartans placed eighth in the 800 relay.

Dearrel Bates can be contacted at (563) 383-2277 or dbates@qctimes.com.