Cardington-Lincoln High School

Following a 1-9 season, Cardington head football coach Ryan Goetzman feels he and his staff learned a lot from the struggle.

On the first day of softball practice this year, Cardington-Lincoln High School players looked at the team championship banner hanging in the gym. Their dream is to add another year to that.

With seven starters returning, the Cardington-Lincoln Pirates are looking to move up the baseball ladder in the conference standings this season.

Cardington-Lincoln boys basketball coach Jason Rice looks for an ALL-IN mentality this year.

First-year head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick looks to continue the winning tradition with the Cardington girl's basketball team.

The last two local teams left standing, Cardington-Lincoln and Highland both lost in their Regional Semifinal matches

Centerburg 3, KIPP Columbus 0. Centerburg (16-5, 9-3) got back into the win column last week with a sweep victory over KIPP Columbus on Oct. 13.

The Mount Vernon News sports department’s MVN ATHLETE of the WEEK is a weekly feature that spotlights local student-athletes and their schools. Our ATHLETE of the WEEK WINNERS for this week are Jadine Mills (Cardington-Lincoln volleyball) and Matthew Bland (Mount Gilead football)

Cardington-Lincoln (19-3, 12-0) remained undefeated in KMAC play with a 3-0 win over Mount Gilead (2-14, 0-9), Oct. 11, by set scores of 25-11, 25-5, 25-8. Everything went right from the get-go for the Lady Pirates, who cruised in all three sets.

Cardington-Lincoln 3, Centerburg 1. Cardington-Lincoln (16-3, 11-0) faced Centerburg (15-4, 9-2) on Oct. 6 and Madison Linkous and Audrey Brininger had big offensive performances on the way to a 3-1 win to clinch a Lady Pirates' KMAC title for the second year in a row.

Cardington-Lincoln 3, East Knox 0. Cardington-Lincoln, 15-3, 10-0 in KMAC, topped East Knox (5-12, 1-8), 3-0, by set scores of 25-18, 25-19, 25-13, on Oct. 4

Cardington-Lincoln 2, North Pickerington 1. Cardington-Lincoln 2, Bellevue 1. Cardington-Lincoln improved to 12-3 and remained 7-0 in KMAC play with a weekend sweep over Pickerington North, and Bellevue, taking both matches in three sets. The Lady Pirates volleyball team beat Pickerington North, 2- 1, by set scores of 25-14, 15-25, 27-25, and they came back to knock off Bellevue, 3-1 by set scores of 20-25, 25-15, 25-21.

The Mount Vernon News sports department’s MVN ATHLETE of the WEEK is a weekly feature that spotlights local student-athletes and their schools.

Mount Vernon 3, Mansfield 0. The visiting Mount Vernon Lady Yellow Jackets dominated the Mansfield Lady Tygers with a 3-0 straight-set volleyball victory, 25-4, 25-17, 25-9, Sept. 20. Mount Vernon improved to 7-4 overall and 5-4 in OCC play and Mansfield remained winless at 0-12, 0-9.

Cardington-Lincoln 3, Centerburg 0. In a battle of the KMAC unbeatens on Sept. 13, Cardington-Lincoln, 8-3 overall and 5-0 in KMAC, swept Centerburg (8-2, 4-1) 3-0, by set scores of 25-16, 25-21, 25-22, to take over first place in the first round of KMAC competition.

Mount Vernon volleyball recaps

Cardington-Lincoln 49, Crestline 0. The Cardington-Lincoln Pirates had a huge offensive output on Friday against Crestline where they dominated in a 49-0 victory, improving to 1-2. Fredericktown 39, Utica 13. Fredericktown improved to 2-1 on the season with a 38-13 win over Utica on Friday in a game where Teegan Ruhl had a pair of touchdowns to lead a solid rushing attack.

Northmor comes back to edge South Central, 28-20. Northmor was coming off a blowout win to open the season and they continued that success, but a bit closer this time, in a 28-20 win over South Central on August 26 to improve to 2-0.

The Cardington-Lincoln volleyball team was the top team in the KMAC last year with an 11-1 conference record while going 21-4 overall, earning a District championship before losing in the regional semifinal.

The Cardington-Lincoln football is looking to rebound off a 2-7 season where they went 1-5 in KMAC, but the team ended on a winning note with a close victory over Mount Gilead. Coach Ryan Goetzman hopes that the team can pick up off this momentum to make a turnaround in 2022.