By Jeremy Mcdonald

Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MOUNT ANGEL, Ore.–  Sheridan came out strong against Kennedy Monday night, but the Trojans were just that much better on this evening.

What started as a 14-10 shootout slowly became a 23-12 by quarters end.  By halftime of the 79-47 Trojan victory, Kennedy led 57-29.  Strong play with rebounds fed into their offense as they held and limited the Spartan offense from doing much damage in the Tri-River Conference bout.

And with how tough the league is, and has been, on the guys’ side in recent years, one slip-up could make the trip to the Top 2 spots out of league for playoffs just that much harder.

“After losing to them last year, the last time we played, we just wanted to come out firing.  We just wanted to show them that we can be better,” Kennedy’s Brett Boen said.

The Trojans fell to the Spartans in the six-week Spring season 69-61 on June 14, as the squad used that game as motivation for the first of two regular season meetings between the squads this year.

It was a gut-punch to say the least for Sheridan.  Coming out slow didn’t help matters either as they got frustrated in their pursuit to stop the bleeding that never came sadly as Kennedy held strong in their momentum to keep the Sparts from mounting a comeback.

“We came out slow (tonight) and it cost us.  We tried to pick it back up, but we just kept looking up at the scoreboard…I don’t really know what to say,” Sheridan’s  Nik Wittrock..  “We got to try harder and we came out flat.  We can look at it as, we were doing this to teams (In preseason) and now we’re getting blown out by 30.  We gotta take it as getting back to our roll and not slow down like we did today.”

Wittrock pointed towards coming in with a mentality that they want it more than the other team as they’ll prepare for Santiam on Wednesday.  For the Trojans their game with Salem Academy Wednesday goes back to the point that it’s a dog-eat-dog league. 

Both teams are undefeated in league following the Crusaders handing Western Christian their second league loss of the season and are looking for more momentum going into the second loop through league that starts next week.

“It’s huge, we’re undefeated so far and we try to keep it up and keep going the next half of the season,” Boen said.  “We don’t think about it, we just take it one-game at a time.  Go out and play our best.”

Boen finished with a game-high 18 poionts for Kennedy.  Ethan Kleinschmit (12), Andrew Cuff (11), and Riley Cantu (10) all scored in double-figures for the Trojans. 

Wittrock and Randy Gibson each finished with 12 points for Sheridan.  Ceasar Casillas and Gavin Anderson each scored eight for the Spartans.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald