FAYETTE SENIOR … Kelsie Storrs handles the ball in last Wednesday’s Division VII district semifinal versus Stryker.
PHOTOS BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
DRAWING CONTACT … Stryker’s Grace Froelich (#2) draws a foul near the end of the third quarter at Archbold High School. VIEW 117 PHOTOS OF THIS CONTEST FOR FREE AT WWW.THEVILLAGEREPORTER.COM
By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
ARCHBOLD (February 25, 2026) – When it was all over, Stryker coach Conner Ruffer expressed that the heroes were many as the Panthers took out Fayette, 40-36, in a Division VII district semifinal before a very large crowd at Archbold.
It was the third time the teams had met this year, with each team claiming an 11-point victory in the previous two meetings.
“We don’t have anyone that averages double figures on offense,” Ruffer said. “But we do have a lot of people who will get you six, seven, eight or nine, and tonight it seemed like a number of people hit shots for us at the right time.
“Defensively we were really good. We wanted to cut down the amount of open looks they got the last time we played (the game Fayette won to force a three-way tie for the BBC title).
“I think we contested really well. I played for coach Steve Brown (longtime Panther coach), and he preached that being good defensively will win games, and we did that tonight.”
Anna Donovan got the Panthers off right with a pair of early baskets to put Stryker up in the first 90 seconds.
Kennedy Kunkle’s power move kept Fayette within 6-4, but that was the only field goal the Eagles hit in the first quarter as Stryker held them to 1-9 for the quarter.
Freshman Khloe Goebel knocked home a triple with 4:43 left in the quarter that gave Stryker an 11-5 lead, but both teams at that point went stone cold as neither scored the rest of the period.
Goebel’s score off the offensive glass and a long three-pointer from Grace Froelich gave Stryker its biggest lead at 16-5 with 5:24 left in the second, but again the Panthers went frigid, missing their next eight attempts.
In the meantime, Fayette went on a 12-0 burst to take a one-point lead.
Addison Schang scored a three-point play off a turnover, Kunkle scored a second-chance bucket, and Schang hit Fayette’s only triple of the night to get the Eagles back to a 16-15 deficit.
Kelsie Storrs’s up-and-under move in the paint put the Eagles up with 1:34 left in the half. Goebel’s power move turned into a lead-changing three-point play, but Kunkle knotted the score at 19-all when she scooped up a loose rebound with a minute to go.
Storrs split at the line with nine seconds left to put the Eagles up 20-19 heading into the locker room.
After going 3-15 in the second quarter, Stryker needed an offensive infusion and got exactly what the doctor prescribed out of Abby Oberlin.
The senior guard canned consecutive triples to start the third, followed by Goebel’s fadeaway jumper to take the Panthers from one down to a 27-20 advantage.
Schang’s steal-and-score plus one chopped the Panthers’ margin to 27-25 with 2:20 left. Then after Froelich found Donovan for a score 43 seconds later, Kunkle again got Fayette within a bucket with yet another putback at the buzzer to make it 29-27.
Again, the Panthers opened a quarter with a triple, this time in the person of Reiss Creighton just 14 seconds into the fourth to give Stryker a five-point lead.
Creighton’s feed to Froelich with 3:53 left helped boost the gap to 35-29. Kunkle and Schang countered to slice the Eagles’ deficit to 35-33 with 2:36 to go, but Oberlin’s drive doubled the lead at 37-33 at the 1:16 mark.
Forced to foul, the Eagles got what they needed as Allie Ruffer could convert only 1-4. Kunkle’s pair at the line with 28 seconds to go cut the margin to 38-36.
Fayette had a chance after another 0-2 from the foul line. Schang tried to force one in traffic from the left side of the key with 10 seconds left that was partially blocked by at least one Stryker defender, and Creighton ended up with the rebound.
With 4.5 seconds on the clock, the senior Panther nailed 2-2 from the line to close out the Eagles.
For Ruffer, it was another goal reached after coaching a team that had just six players last season. That number has more than doubled this year.
“We have more kids this year, kids who want to come to the gym and get after it,” Ruffer said with a smile as she talked about her team.
“The freshmen are there every day ready to contest the upperclassmen, and those kinds of things are the things that will make our program continue to build.
“The seniors had goals this year. We’ve reached some of them, but we aren’t finished just yet.”
The Panthers harassed Fayette into 5-30 shooting in the second half and just 21 percent for the game. The Panthers weren’t a lot better, going 14-49 for 29 percent.
Schang had 15 for Fayette while Kunkle added 14 and had a whopping 16 rebounds. Goebel led Stryker with 12.
The Panthers now play Saturday at Archbold against highly touted North Baltimore in the Division VII title game.
FAYETTE (36) – Schang 16; Storrs 3; Simon 0; Mitchell 1; Phillips 0; Gorsuch 2; Kunkle 14; Williams 0; Totals: 10-1-13 – 36
STRYKER (40) – Froelich 5; Donovan 9; Oberlin 8; Ruffer 1; R. Creighton 5; A. Clemens 0; M. Clemens 0; Goebel 12; Totals: 9-5-7 – 40
FHS 5 15 7 9 – 36
SHS 11 8 10 11 – 40