By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
ARCHBOLD (January 24, 2025) – When it was all said and done, anyone who stepped foot on the floor made a big play for Evergreen, as the Vikings and their balanced attack, came from behind in the fourth quarter to take a 67-57 win over Archbold before a large and enthusiastic crowd at Archbold.
The Vikings raised their record to 10-6, 1-2 in NWOAL, on the year, and the victory maintained their #2 RPI seed in Division VI Northwest District 1 for the upcoming tournament.
Archbold is now 9-5, 2-2 in NWOAL, and a #2 seed, the Streaks place is in Division V Northwest District 1.
“We have said ‘one step at a time’, because we have a couple weeks here where a lot of games matter for the tournament draw,” explained Viking coach Kyle Bostater.
“We aren’t looking ahead but and this is a great league win. After being right there, a four-point game with PH with less than two minutes left, and being tied with Wauseon with 50 seconds left, this was our breakthrough game where we finished well in the fourth.”
The Vikes John Herdman broke an early 7-7 tie with a corner triple with 5:49 left in a high octane first quarter.
Archbold’s Madden Valentine nailed a pair from long range around George Allendorf’s deep bomb from the logo to bring the Streaks back to 13-13.
Will Ruetz’s up fake and step through regained a two-point Evergreen lead, and Troy Manz’s floater at the first quarter horn doubled the margin at 22-18.
Manz’s laced a corner three-ball 22 ticks into the second to push the Vikings up 25-18 but for the next seven-plus minutes, both teams were on the struggle bus trying to score.
Colton Robertson’s reverse spin that fell through gave Evergreen their largest first half lead at 29-21 with 1:21 to go but Micah Nofziger’s putback, one of 14 Archbold offensive rebounds on the night, got the Streaks within 29-23 at half.
Nofziger’s basket began an 11-0 run that carried past three minutes into the second half as the Vikings went ‘oh-for’ their first four possessions, while the Streaks went 4/4.
Valentine drained his third triple of the night, then hit a foul line jumper to get Archbold to a one point deficit.
Then Evan Wendt regained the Streak lead with an angle jumper and Nofziger got loose inside to make it 32-29 with 4:55 left in the third.
With the Vikings mired in a 3-13 slump from the field from the start of the second quarter, it was Herdman who got Evergreen back on track when he canned one from the head of the key to bring the Vikings even at 32-32.
“That was a huge three from the top of the key because there was not very much movement going on for us offensively,” Bostater exclaimed.
“There was a lot of standing and watching. I was drawing up stuff that we haven’t even used all year to get some movement, but we have a lot of guys who can make plays and John’s shot got us going again.”
Valentine split two free throws to push Archbold back up and began a series of eight lead changes in the next three minutes.
Manz meshed another three-ball with 28 seconds left to put the Vikings on top 42-39, and after Morgan Harris sliced the lead to 42-41 with nine seconds to go, Ruetz beat everyone to the rim four seconds later to give the Vikes a 44-41 margin after the third.
Nofziger had back-to-back buckets to begin the fourth, the first when Sonny Phillips dropped a dime on the block, to regain an Archbold lead.
It only took 20 seconds for Evergreen to find yet another scoring source that would ignite a 9-0 that would give Evergreen a 53-45 advantage.
Will Johnson hit a pair of free throws to give the Vikings the lead for good this time. Then Johnson got ahead of the field on the break to take a lob from Herdman, then an up court pass from Ruetz to make it 50-45.
Allendorf capped the burst with a bomb from the corner, ballooning the margin to 53-45 with 4:36 to go.
“We knew Archbold would go on a run, but we have had a knack all year of answering with a big run too, many of those in the fourth quarter,” Bostater said.
“Will Johnson did a good job beating people up the floor. They tried to run and jump a little bit in the fourth and Will was able to beat his guy down the floor and we had our eyes up and hit him.”
“We worked a lot this week with our posts. We had a big guy boot camp this week and they put in a lot of work with big fellas this week and it paid off.”
Manz stuck a triple, and after Aranjer Krieger hit a triple for Archbold, Ruetz went coast-to-coast on a Streak miss to give Evergreen a double digit lead at 58-48 and Archbold never got closer than three possessions the rest of the way.
Manz led Evergreen with 18 while Ruetz added 14 and Allendorf, who spent much of the night on the bench in foul trouble, chipped in with 11.
Nofziger and Valentine each had 18 for Archbold.
EVERGREEN (67) – Manz 18; Ruetz 14; Herdman 6; Robertson 2; Allendorf 11; Q. Eisel 6; Fritsch 2; Johnson 8; Totals: 15-9-10 – 67
ARCHBOLD (57) – Gracia 0; Phillips 6; Kriger 3; Wendt 4; Williams 0; Harris 4; Kruger 4; Piercefield 0; Valentine 18; Nofziger 18; Totals: 17-6-5 – 57
EHS 22 7 15 23 – 67
AHS 18 5 18 16 – 57
Junior Varsity: Archbold, 58-22
Freshman: Archbold, 48-14