It might be called Christmas break, but last week brought a full slate of activity for Litchfield High School athletes.
Litchfield boys and girls basketball teams, Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato boys and girls hockey teams, and the Dassel-Cokato/Litchfield wrestling team all did their fair share of unwrapping wins.
A quick look at the holiday hoopla:
- Litchfield’s boys basketball team won two of three games at the Crusader Christmas Classic Dec. 28-30 at St. Cloud Cathedral High School.
The Dragons opened with a 69-61 win over Spectrum School, getting double-figure scoring from Tucker Liestman (19 points), Alex Draeger (18) and Jack McCann (12).
A second-half rally propelled Litchfield to its second win in the tournament as it topped Moose Lake-Willow River 57-48. The Dragons trailed by five at halftime, but rolled to a 33-19 advantage in the second half. McCann had a game-high 21 points, and Draeger added 17.
Concordia Academy ended the Dragons’ win streak 71-54, outscoring Litchfield 41-27 in the second half. Draeger and McCann led the Dragons in scoring again with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
- Litchfield girls basketball also competed on the girls side of the Crusader Christmas Classic, and also won twice in three games, which raised the Dragons’ season record to 4-4.
The tournament didn’t start well, as Southwest Christian overwhelmed Litchfield 75-28. But the Dragons followed that with a pair of overwhelming performances of their own, beating Moose Lake-Willow River (52-25) and Concordia Academy (68-33).
Seniors Greta Hansen and Izzy Pennertz established an inside presence for Litchfield in the two tournament wins. Hansen scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Pennertz had 12 points, three steals and three blocked shots during the win over Moose Lake-Willow River. Pennertz notched 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists against Concordia Academy while Hansen had 17 points, 11 rebounds and four steals.
- Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato’s boys hockey team spent the week competing in St. Cloud as well, playing three games in the St. Cloud MAC-Granite City Showcase.
The Dragons went 2-1 in the showcase, losing their first game of the season, but improving to 8-1-1 overall.
All three games saw the Dragons fall behind early, but they rallied to win two of the three, including an impressive comeback to beat Sauk Rapids-Rice in the tournament finale.
LDC trailed 3-0 in the first period, but that’s when forward Calvin Jones caught fire. He got LDC on the board at 15:42 of the first period, then scored the first three goals of the second period to put the Dragons up 4-3. Reegan Drummond scored at 14:11 of the second — on a Jones assist — to push the LDC lead to 5-3.
The five-point outburst lifted Jones to second on the team in scoring with 17 points (10 goals, 7 assists).
- LDC girls hockey split a pair of holiday games, falling to Rock Ridge 4-3 on Dec. 27, then shutting out Northern Lakes 3-0 on Dec. 28 at Litchfield Civic Arena.
Janelle Quast earned the win in goal against Northern Lakes, turning away 20 shots. Meanwhile, the Dragons took advantage of nine Northern Lakes penalties, getting power play goals from Krista Tormanen and Amelia Benson in the first period, and another in the third period from Stella Hillman got pick up the win.
LDC improved to 7-6-0 on the season, with a trio of games on the schedule this week, including home contests Thursday against Morris/Benson Area and Saturday against Hutchinson.
- Dassel-Cokato/Litchfield wrestlers participated in the 59-team Rumble on the Red tournament in Fargo, North Dakota, earning 22 points and a 40th-place finish.
Tate Link was the Charging Dragons’ top individual finished, taking fifth place at 195 pounds. Link improved to 7-2 on the season with a forfeit win over Matthew Haley of Jackson County Central in the fifth-place match.
DCL travels to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted dual meet Thursday, then to the Foley Invitational Saturday.
