Central, ND soccer pull in state honors

Central High School's boys soccer team had its best season this year with a fourth place state finish and a program-high 26 wins.

Three seniors from Central's record-setting team were honored by the Missouri State High School Soccer Coaches Association with all-state honors, and Tigers coach Tom Doyle was selected the Class 3 coach of the year.

Heath Orr and James Russell were honored as first-team all-state members and defender Josh Fee was honorable mention.

At forward, Orr was a scoring machine for the Tigers. Orr finished the season with school records in goals in a season (32) and career (71). Orr was already named all-Midwest by the MSHSSCA.

Russell was an anchor for Central's defense. With Russell, Fee, Matt Hellrich and Dean Richardson, the Tigers allowed only 20 goals in 28 games.

Central coach Tom Doyle said while he'd like to have seen Fee higher than honorable mention, he was proud of his team's selections.

"We still had three from Central," he said.

Notre Dame placed two players on the first team in Class 2 and had three total all-state players. Wade Cramer and Jonathan Market each made the first team and goalie Brendan McMeel was honorable mention.

All-region soccer team

Central dominated the Southeast Missouri all-region soccer team with eight of the 12 roster spots given to Tigers.

Orr, Russell, Fee, Jordan Duncan, Aaron Bornstein, Calen Wills, Grant Hengst and Tony Leuckel were honored. Jackson's Cole Humphrey also made the team.

Bloomfield tournament

Dexter earned the top seed in the Bloomfield Christmas Tournament that begins on Friday.

The 16-team tournament is made up of teams from throughout Southeast Missouri. Defending Class 2 state champion East Carter County is seeded second, followed by Twin Rivers and Doniphan.

The tournament championship is set for 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 30.

College notes

Jackson graduate Seth Harrell, a walk-on football player at Missouri, will travel with the team for its New Year's eve Independence Bowl game against Arkansas. Harrell, a linebacker who will have surgery on his knee after he injured it in practice recently, has not seen any game-time action this season for the Tigers.

Notre Dame graduate Deana McCormick scored 11 points and added a game-high six rebounds in only 15 minutes of a 93-48 Quincy University win over Illinois-Springfield. McCormick's Quincy team improved to 8-2.