South Loup will host Sandhills Valley in area eight-man football tonight in Arnold. Each team will be looking for their first win of the season. Sandhills Valley was among the teams that had an early start to the season starting in “week 0” back on September 21st. The Mavericks have been fighting through some adversity early in the season but head coach Luke Connell told KCNI/KBBN sports that he has been very pleased with the way his team has stuck together and continues to work hard.
“I really do appreciate the boys’ “sticktoitiveness” I guess. I think that’s an old word that they use in the broadcasting business. We really are short on numbers this year and we’ve had some injuries that haven’t helped us. So I’ve been really impressed with that. That they don’t quit. Um once again love to see a little better execution. I’m really happy with that we’re devoted to the run game right now. We’re trying to shorten games up and make ’em take some plays out of there and so the kids have bought into that system and just understanding that we’re not in any big hurry, we’re just gonna do what we’re gonna do and and we can control what we can control.”
South Loup is looking to bounce back following a season opening loss last week to top ten ranked North Platte St. Pat’s. Head coach Zac Sweet said he has been pleased with the way the players have approached practice this week as they look to improve.
“Yeah, they were very quality, you know, and I think we responded by you know, just focusing on us. You know, I think we need to improve us. The last couple of days here all week long, you know, with a short week turnaround, a Thursday game we had to look at the film and decide what we did poor and what we did good and what changes we needed to make and it was a a quick week but a good week of preparation.”
Tonight’s game will be broadcast on KBBN 95.3 FM and kbbn.com with coverage beginning with the Consolidated Pregame Show at 6 p.m. followed by the kickoff at 7. Other area matchups scheduled for today include Ansley/Litchfield vs SEM in six man football. The game is scheduled to kickoff at 7:30 at Litchfield.
INTERVIEW WITH COACH CONNELL
INTERVIEW WITH COACH SWEET
In area high school volleyball action today, Ansley/Litchfield will host a volleyball 
triangular with Anselmo-Merna at Twin Loup in Litchfield. All three matches will be broadcast on KCNI 1280 AM / 96.3 FM and kcni1280.com. A live video stream of the games, accompanied by the radio call, will be available through the Sandhills Express Facebook page and You Tube Channel. Matches are scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Other area volleyball matchups scheduled for today include:
Broken Bow at Gothenburg
South Loup vs Sandhills Valley
SEM at Hi-Line triangular with Hi-Line and Wilcox-Hildreth
Burwell triangular with West Holt and North Central
Sandhills/Thedford triangular with Gibbon and Ravenna
The Broken Bow cross country teams return to action today as they compete at the Cozad Invitational. Gibbon will host its cross country invite today. Among the area teams scheduled to compete are Ansley/Litchfield, Arcadia/Loup City, and SEM. Ainsworth is scheduled to host its cross country invitational today. Among the area teams scheduled to compete are Twin Loup, Burwell, and Sandhills/Thedford.
Also on the local sports calendar today, the Broken Bow girls golf team will travel to Grand Island for the GICC invite to be played at Indianhead Golf Course.
