Full-throttle Onaway Cardinals power past Cheboygan at home

ONAWAY – Ever since their loss to Gaylord St. Mary a few weeks ago, the Onaway Cardinals have elevated their game to a new level.

No matter who they’re squaring off against, their in-your-face defense has worn down opponents, while their offensive weapons have been clicking on all cylinders.

Taking on the also red-hot Cheboygan Chiefs in front of a large crowd, the relentless Cardinals delivered another top-class display in a 65-45 victory in their ‘Snowcoming’ game on Friday.

“There’s nothing like it, stepping on this court, wearing that uniform and having the crowds that we have, and we want to give our fans – our town – a show, and we want to show that when we’re taking this court, we’re all business and we’re going to leave everything here,” said Onaway coach Eddy Szymoniak. “What we talked about over and over again is give these guys something to come in and watch, and be relentless. That’s the way we want to play.

“We know we’re in better shape than anybody, and we’re just going to keep going 100 miles per hour.”

The Cardinals (10-2) started fast by taking a 13-4 lead midway through the first quarter, but the Chiefs (5-8) weathered the storm and cut the deficit to four after one.

In the second, the Chiefs stayed within five after junior Brennen Thater scored a basket to make it a 23-18 contest. However, that’s the closest the Chiefs would get the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals went on an offensive explosion in just a few minutes, as sophomore guard Mason Beebe nailed back-to-back 3-pointers and junior guard Austin Veal connected on a triple to key a 13-0 run, which saw Onaway take a commanding 36-18 lead. At halftime, the Cardinals maintained their 18-point advantage at 40-22.

“When you play as fast as we do, we talked about as long as we get into the flow of the game, we have good enough ball players that feel comfortable, and you have to get a rhythm, and it’s a matter of time,” Szymoniak said. “I think earlier in the year we were pressing, we missed a few shots, and it was like, ‘Holy crap,’ and we’d start to panic. They understand how good we are now, how good we can be, and they don’t get rattled.

“The best part about this team is they’re understanding their roles on this team.”

While the Chiefs opened up the third with a quick 5-0 run to cut their deficit to 13, the Cardinals countered again with an 11-0 spurt to put the game out of reach.

For the Chiefs, they saw their three-game winning streak snapped against an Onaway pressure defense that was ferocious from the opening tip.

“We’ve had three games this week, the kids are tired, so we had an easy practice (Thursday), but we showed video clips of the different levels, the half-court, full-court of their press, but you really can’t simulate the pace they have when they come at you,” said Cheboygan coach Jason Friday. “They did a great job defensively. We weathered the storm a little bit, and we cut it to five or six and were playing really good defense, and all of a sudden they just went on a run, they hit about three threes in four possessions and really put some separation between us.”

Veal’s hot scoring streak continued as he netted 21 of his game-high 23 points in the second and third quarters to fuel the Cardinals. Beebe, who connected on four threes in the opening half, scored 15, while juniors Jadin Mix and Justin Kramer-St. Germain each hit double figures with 11 apiece. Cole Selke and Luke Lovelace finished with three and two points respectively.

Without the services of senior forward Bridger Peel, who suffered a head injury recently, Szymoniak was thrilled to see so many of his role players step up big.

“I can’t be any prouder of these guys – they don’t stop,” Szymoniak said. “There’s not an easy shot they give up, and they get after everything, and that’s the difference in these games right now. There’s no quit in them, they want the ball bad, and it’s fun to watch. It’s fun to coach.”

Junior Kaleb Goodrich scored 12 points to lead the Chiefs, who received 11 points from junior forward Ethan Gibbons. Patrick Watson scored seven, Thater finished with six, Connor Gibbons tallied five, and Robert Godfrey and Jordan Johnson each chipped in with two.

Defensively, Friday thought his team could’ve been a little better.

“We talk about pinching gaps, and you can’t reach,” Friday said. “We had a couple guys pick up some reach-in fouls, because instead of moving your feet and pinching gaps, you stick your hand in there, and not only do they split that, but you get called for a touch foul and it’s an And-1, and that was frustrating, especially since it’s something we’ve really focused on over the past few weeks, is pinching gaps.”

The Chiefs also played without one of their top players in junior center Dylan Balazovic, who suffered an ankle injury during Thursday’s practice.

Without Balazovic on the floor, it made things tough for the Chiefs, especially on the road.

“Dylan’s our horse, Dylan’s our energy,” Friday said. “We have great guys. I love every single one of my guys. We talked about it at halftime that we need other guys that play with the intensity level that Dylan does, and I’m super proud of the way our boys played in that second half. We played them even in the second half. We had two guys (Gibbons and Gardner) foul out that never foul out in the third quarter, but I thought we played a good second half.

“Hats off to Onaway. They play hard, they play aggressive, they didn’t make a whole lot of mistakes, Eddy (Szymoniak) has a really good team, and he gets them going.”

For the Cardinals, who won a fifth straight game, they’ll continue their pursuit of a second straight Ski Valley title when they travel to Pellston on Tuesday.

“We want to get back to Gaylord St. Mary’s with a shot to run this conference,” Szymoniak said. “We don’t want anybody getting in the way whether it’s the conference or not. We’re not happy with our two losses.”

Despite the loss, it was still a strong week for the Chiefs, who picked up victories over Johannesburg-Lewiston and Inland Lakes.

“We had that crazy win (over Inland Lakes) in Indian River last week, JoBurg on Monday, which was a great win, and I thought we played our best game of the year on Wednesday against Indian River,” Friday said. “We played flawless, we had 13 turnovers, that’s it, played really good, and we just came out a little flat tonight, and (Onaway) came out with all their jet engines just roaring.”

Cheboygan returns to Straits Area Conference play when it hosts Newberry on Wednesday.

In the junior varsity game, Cheboygan captured a 57-43 victory over Onaway.

Leading the Chiefs was Luke Munger, who scored 11 points. Andrew Kiefer had 10, Carson Kiefer scored nine, Jack Ekdahl and Owen Kimbrell each registered six, Ethan Goulet tallied five, Cody Christmas netted four, and Luke Hoskins and Luke LaFrinere chipped in with two apiece.

For Onaway, Trenton Soik led with 18 points, Tristen Friant added eight, Luke Lovelace scored seven, Brady Gapczynski finished with five, Zack Atrip recorded four, and Colton Prow notched one.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Full-throttle Onaway Cardinals power past Cheboygan at home, 65-45