Onaway claims first conference title in 59 years
by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor
Wednesday night in Mancelona, the Cardinal boys’ basketball team won the program’s first conference title since 1963 and a share of the Ski Valley Conference for the first time ever. They can be outright champs with a win Saturday at Bellaire.
Head coach Eddy Szymoniak and company did it with an exclamation point at the end of the conference schedule, blasting Mancelona for the second time this season, 84-50, and taking over sole possession of first place with a 14-1 record.
The host Ironmen started off well out of the gate, going up 11-5, but once the Cardinals turned up the defensive pressure, the game turned quickly with the visitors going on a 16-2 run from the middle of the first quarter, into the second.
The run started when one of Mancelona’s better players went to the bench with two fouls, and from there the fouls started to mount with three starters nursing three by halftime.
Onaway had eight different players score in the first two quarters, including two 3-pointers from Kobe Russell off the bench. The lead was 42-19.
The players kept pouring it on in the second half and the Onaway student section, who came over on a fan bus, was easily outcheering a stunned Mancelona crowd.
At the end of the game, the Onaway fans once ag
For Szymoniak, he is coaching another team that will change a banner in the Onaway High School gym. The first major change was the 2016 regional title, now this.
“I proud to do it with this group, another group, which makes it all the better,” said Szymoniak. “To do it on the road and in a big game like this, against a good Mancelona team (12-6, 12-2), it’s an amazing feeling.”
At the end of the game, 12 of 14 Cardinal players scored, with big man Jager Mix leading the way with 17. The Cards have won 17 of 18 games this season and four in a row.