Esko Tops Carlton Remains Unbeaten

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Dwight Cadwell-NSO

ESKO – The Esko Eskomos remained perfect on their young season as they downed the Carlton Bulldogs 77-42 Thursday night in Esko. The Eskomos dominated all aspects of the game in cruising to the 35 point win.

The Eskomos started fast Thursday, opening up a 13-2 early lead. Savanna Trapp and Amanda Bergstedt led the Eskomos in the early going. Bergstedt had several steals which led to easy baskets and Trapp’s size underneath was a factor down low. All the while Keely Deadrick continued with her hot shooting.

“We needed to get out to a fast start,” head coach Scott Antonutti told Northland Sports Online. “Our first three games we struggled at the start so we wanted to get out to a lead and play our style of basketball.” Antonutti added that “three girls off the bench have been amazing for us defensively; Katie Tonner, Kate Marquis, and Alyson Glumac have really stepped it up on defense for us.”

Esko’s pressure defense would be the main contributing factro in the first half, forcing Carlton to 23 first half turnovers which lead to several easy baskets for the Eskomos. “We can’t make the mistakes, and we can’t turn the ball over against Esko,” head coach Lisa Johnson told Northland Sports Online before Thursday’s game. “We need to keep the girls focused and playing smart.
We can’t give Esko second chances,” Johnson would add.

Esko led 45-15 at the break and easily rolled to the thirty point win. Although Carlton cut down on mistakes in the second half, Esko continued to play solid defense and shoot well. The Bulldogs would not quit and worked hard in the second half,
attempting to chip away here and there at the Esko lead. However, in the end it was too much for Carlton to handle.

Esko improves to 4-0 on the season and will play at Duluth Central on Friday night. Bergstedt led Esko in scoring with 20 points Thursday, Savanna Trapp added 16 points and Keely Deadrick finished with 13. Alyson Glumac scored 9 points followed by Kate Marquis 5, Lydia Pelletier & Steph Miller both had 4, and Katie Tonner, Megan Reuer, and Steph Bandelin all scored 2.

Carlton drops to 1-3 on the season and play in the Isle Holiday tournament Friday and Saturday in Isle. On Friday they will face Mora and Saturday the Bulldogs will play either Isle or Ogilvie. Against Esko, Lindsey Dahl-Holm paced the Bulldogs in scoring with 12 points, she was followed by Katie Bloom with 11, Sarah Aili had 9, Alanna Groth & Savannah Schramm both finished with 3, and Tori Zime and McKinzie Belanger each had 2 points in the Bulldog loss.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com