High School Sports

By NewsPress Now GAME OF THE WEEK: Central 21, Benton 14 The matchup between Class 5 Central and Class 3 Benton has been lopsided for the last two years. Central won the previous two matchups against the Cardinals by an average of 31 points per game heading into Friday’s contest. Offense was hard to come

By Calvin Silvers The Central Indians are coming off a 45-19 victory over Winnetonka in Week 1, capturing not only the first win of the season but Sheldon Farrell’s first victory as a head coach. Now the attention is turned to in-city rival, the Benton Cardinals. While Benton has struggled in recent years, they aren’t

By Calvin Silvers It’s Week 2 of the high school football season, and News-Press NOW’s Game of the Week features two in-city rivals, the Benton Cardinals and the Central Indians. This will be the third straight season these two teams have faced each other on the gridiron, and the Cardinals are hoping to take the

By NewsPress Now The lights were back on at football stadiums across St. Joseph Friday night as local high school teams returned to action around the area.  In News-Press NOW’s game of the week, St. Joseph Christian visited DeKalb. The Lions came off a winning season for the first time in years, and they kept

By Jacob Meikel In 2023, St. Joseph Christian proved that the past is the past, and in 2024, it’ll try to not rest on its laurels. Last season, the Lions broke through by going 7-4, but what they went through in the years prior is what makes the record stand out even more. Prior to

By Calvin Silvers The DeKalb Tigers are coming off a 1-10 season last year, with that single win in the Class 1 state district quarterfinals against Stewartsville with Osborn. One of those 10 losses did come at the hands of St. Joseph Christian, when the Lions faced the Tigers in week 1 of last season,

By Calvin Silvers Lafayette head football coach Nate Daugherty enters his second year with the Fighting Irish, looking to take what he learned in year one and improve from last year’s 1-9 season. The team has a rich history, recently having had multiple winning teams throughout the 2010s. However, the start of this decade wasn’t

By Jacob Meikel The Central football program has exceeded expectations each of the last two seasons, and the next step will be to add playoff wins to its resume in 2024. From 2018 to 2021, the program only won four football games. Since then, they’ve tallied five wins in 2022 and seven wins in 2023.

By Calvin Silvers While the Kansas City Chiefs have been preparing for their season here in St. Joseph, a few more teams in the community were able to begin their own practices, as high school football teams began their journey to a state title for the 2024-25 season. The first stop for high school football

By Calvin Silvers We’re still months away from the 2024-25 high school girls’ basketball season, but that doesn’t mean offseason tasks weren’t completed as early as possible. For Bishop LeBlond, there was a large task at hand, and it involved finding a replacement for former LeBlond girls’ basketball coach, Jackie Steltenpohl. The search led to

By Jacob Meikel St. Joseph native and Missouri Western Griffon Jeffrey Johnston is currently tied for the lead through round one in the Missouri Amateur Golf Championship at St. Joseph Country Club. Johnston shot -8 for the first round of stroke play on Tuesday, tying him for the top spot with Kevin Kring of Springfield.

By Calvin Silvers The community of St. Joseph holds a special place in many hearts, and that rings true for former St. Joseph Mustang and Mid-Buchanan assistant coach Brady Holden. The outfielder has seen some success as both a player and coach, and it has all been done right here in the area. The feelings

By Jacob Meikel Three St. Joseph football players got the chance to put the pads on one last time at last Saturday’s Missouri 8-Man Football All-Star Game. Bishop LeBlond seniors Brady Rocha and Jackson Sigrist, as well as St. Joseph Christian senior Jaren Padgett took to the field at Spratt Stadium, as they realized it’s

By Calvin Silvers The campus of Missouri Western has seen some heavy traffic this summer, as multiple schools and athletes have been using the football facilities for teams and summer camps. This Saturday will be no different, as the 16th annual Missouri 8-Man All-Star game will take place at Spratt Memorial Stadium. The more than

By Calvin Silvers The community of St. Joseph has been known to recreate quality game day experiences for area student-athletes and coaches, and the St. Joseph Sports Commission is keeping that true as they announced the field and matchups for the 3rd Annual St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame Holiday Hoops Classic and the

By Jacob Meikel Central senior Gabe Fields made one of the biggest decisions of his young life last week, committing to Vanderbilt University to continue his football career. A decision that was worth mulling over came to a conclusion last Friday, as Fields went to social media to announce his decision to join the Commodores.

By Jacob Meikel In what was a successful year of high school baseball for the St. Joseph area in 2024, multiple local players received recognition for their superb play. On Monday, the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association released its 2024 All-State teams with several local players making the cut this time around. The Benton

By Jacob Meikel Mid Buchanan and Benton’s baseball programs will both travel to Ozark, Missouri, this week attempting to cap off their seasons with state championships. The Cardinals will take to the state semifinals this week for the first time since 2007. The last time they went, head coach Johnny Coy was a player instead

By Calvin Silvers It was an unusual circumstance Thursday at Mid-Buchanan High School for the Class 3 State Quarterfinals, as the Dragons found themselves as the away team on their home field, going against the Lone Jack Mules. The Mules entered the contest at 30-1 on the year, but in their most important game of

By Jacob Meikel The 31st win of the season for Benton baseball came in dominant fashion as the Cardinals got to pack up early in the Class 4 quarterfinals. Superb hitting and shutout pitching was the exact formula in route to a 16-0 victory for the Cardinals over District 14 champion St. Michael the Archangel

By Calvin Silvers While the city of St. Joseph was washed out with rain earlier Tuesday afternoon, the overcast skies held off during the Class 4 State Tournament in the sectional round as the St. Pius X Warriors made the trip to Missouri Western to take on the Benton Cardinals. Despite what looked like a

By Jacob Meikel Mid-Buchanan baseball had enough in the tank to stave off KCI Conference foe Lawson to win in the Class 3 sectional round over the Cardinals 7-5 on Tuesday. The one and only other time the two teams had faced this season, the Dragons came out on top in nine innings. Tuesday’s sectional

By Calvin Silvers Monday provided a warm afternoon at Dave Goodwin Field in Cameron, Missouri, as the two-seeded Bishop LeBlond Golden Eagles and the one-seeded Maryville Spoofhounds battled for the Class 2 District 8 Girls Soccer Championship. The two teams both found themselves on the scoreboard in the first half, but the Spoofhounds were able

By Jacob Meikel Several seniors on the Mid-Buchanan girls soccer team have far exceeded expectations set forth when they joined the program as freshman. When the program started in 2021, the inaugural season served as anything but a mirage as to what the team was able to accomplish in the years to come. The team

By Calvin Silvers It’s that special time of the spring season where teams are punching their tickets to sectionals and beyond, as both soccer and baseball are wrapping up their district tournament play. On Thursday, the Benton Cardinals baseball team was able to bring a district title back to the southside for the first time

By Calvin Silvers The skies were clear and the sun shone down on the baseball diamond at Missouri Western, where the Class 4 District 16 Championship was held. It was the No.1-seeded Benton Cardinals battling the No. 2-seeded Savannah Savages for a punched ticket to sectionals. The game featured back-and-forth play, but Benton’s three runs

By Jacob Meikel Mid-Buchanan baseball, with no senior players, conquered Thursday’s Class 3 District 16 championship with little to no jitters. The Dragons continued its domination of the tournament field, defeating Lathrop 9-0 to capture the program’s first district title since 2017. It took the Dragons the first inning to get their feet under them

By Calvin Silvers It was the second day of the Class 2 District 8 girls soccer quarterfinals at Cameron High School, as the first contest was between the seventh seeded and host Cameron Dragons and the two seeded Bishop LeBlond Golden Eagles. The action was abundant early, as this contest only needed three minutes before

By Jacob Meikel The Benton Cardinals cruised past the Cameron Dragons 15-0 in the Class 4 District 16 semifinals on Tuesday. Senior Jackson Kanacsky set the tone for the Cardinals with his start on the mound. Kanacsky struck out three batters looking to record all three outs of the top of the first inning. Benton

By Jacob Meikel North Platte baseball is headed to the district championship for the second consecutive season after defeating Bishop LeBlond 18-8 on Monday. Rainfall was persistent the entire contest out in Plattsburg for the Class 2 District 15 matchup between the two programs vastly different in records, as LeBlond had six wins to its