By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
PIONEER (January 3, 2026) – Kyle Bostater and his Evergreen Vikings have faced adversity seemingly since preseason when two of their returning players Luke Woodring and Austin Gillen were lost for a big chunk if not the whole season due to injury.
Then this past week, do-everything point guard Troy Manz suffered what is feared to be a season ending knee injury.
In spite of all that, the Vikings raced out to a 24-4 first quarter lead against North Central, only to have the Eagles chip their way back into the game thanks to an overabundance of fouls on the Vikings.
However, in the end, the Vikings got big plays from a number of sources, especially a 27 point and 20 rebound performance from Quinn Eisel, to put away the Eagles 82-73 before a raucous crowd at North Central.
“I give a lot of credit to our guys,” Bostater exclaimed after. “We needed to get out fast and I give credit to North Central for getting back into it. We got into a lot of foul trouble and had a dogfight on our hands.”
“A lot of credit goes to all the guys we brought off the bench. This may not make a ton of sense but by losing one of our best players, maybe arguably our best player in Troy, we said we are going to start playing more guys to help cover it and lean on them.”
“The Jake Farleys, the Brendan Raffertys, Blake Fisher coming off the bench, Bryce (Bolger) stepping into a starting role and having a career high right off the rip and playing good defense. Those guys came out and did a great job.”
The Vikes raced out to a big lead thanks to a huge number of offensive rebounds, and a lightning quick defense that forced nine Eagle turnovers in the first quarter.
Eisel was the main culprit, scoring on a second chance, then a third chance bucket, then a third off his own miss.
Bolger putback a miss after a turnover, Will Ruetz converted another into a three-point play and George Allendorf took a feed from Ruetz after a third Viking steal for a 14-0 lead.
That margin ballooned to 20 when Bolger scored a three-point play and Ruetz tripled with 1:39 to go.
Talen Reinbolt’s three-point play and another by Zack Whitley closed the gap to 24-14 at the quarter as fouls began to mount on Evergreen.
Second quarter triples from Eisel, Ruetz and Chris Shrader offset a 12-point burst from Jackson Poynter to keep the Evergreen lead at double figures, then Shrader found Rafferty alone underneath for a buzzer beating layup that made it 46-34 at the break.
Evergreen shot just 18-39 in the first half but were aided by 16 North Central turnovers.
Bolger’s triple early in the third boosted Evergreen up 13 but Ruetz, then Allendorf, and finally Bolger all went to the bench with four fouls, along with Farley and North Central began again to chip away.
Whitley scored six straight Eagle points to bring North Central within 54-49 with 3:57 left.
Eisel scored on another third chance hoop and off yet another North Central turnover, then Farley bagged a corner three-ball to keep the Vikings up 61-53 after the third but the Eagles weren’t finished yet.
Alex St. John’s three-point play on Bolger’s fifth foul, then Whitley’s swoop to the rim got the Eagles back to 63-60 with 6:00 to go.
Allendorf’s cold-blooded triple from deep at the 5:49 mark doubled the lead, then with the score 70-63, Farley came up with two huge plays that broke the game open.
First the diminutive junior guard lassoed two offensive rebounds that resulted in a Shrader triple to make it 73-63 with 3:27 to go.
Then 12 seconds later, Farley’s steal and up court feed to Ruetz turned into an ‘and-1’ that pushed the Vikes ahead 76-63 with 3:13 on the clock.
“He made some great plays defensively,” Bostater expressed of Farley. “Then the offensive rebounds, the tip out led to a three, he is a hustle guy all out on the floor.”
Whitley scored six more Eagle points down the stretch, but Evergreen canned 6-8 from the stripe to counter.
For the night Evergreen (6-3) shot just 30-75 from the field, missing a number of shots from close. North Central was 27-58 but was harassed into 26 turnovers. Evergreen had just 12 in the high speed contest.
Eisel’s 27 was supported by Allendorf who had 19 and Ruetz with 16.
“Quinn played like a man,” said Bostater. “He could’ve finished a few more which we will continue to work on in our big man camp, but he really dictated the game right from the get-go.
“He was the reason, he rebounded every single miss on both ends, got putbacks on the offensive side and really was the only one not in foul trouble so he had to play basically the entire night. A lot of credit to him stepping up really big.”
Whitley had 25 and Poynter 20 for North Central (6-4).
EVERGREEN (82) – Ruetz 16; Farley 3; Q. Eisel 27; Allendorf 19; Bolger 8; Fisher 0; Rafferty 2; Shrader 7; Totals: 21-4-13 – 82
NORTH CENTRAL (73) – Hegler 4; Poynter 20; Meyers 4; Reinbolt 5; Whitley 25; Brigle 0; St. John 11; Clark 2; Martin 2; Totals: 26-2-15 – 73
EHS 24 22 15 21 – 82
NCHS 14 20 19 20 – 73