Silver Lake Public Schools

On Friday the 15th, The Silver Lake High School boys basketball team traveled to Shelton to take on the Bulldogs for their last regular season game of the year. In the first quarter, the Silver Lake Boys scored 13 along with Shelton also scoring 13 tying the game. Ending the first half Silver Lake scored 21 points with Bulldogs pulling ahead with a total 28 points. The start of the second half the Silver Lake Mustangs fought hard to put points onto the scoreboard, but the Bulldogs put up an even bigger fight, leaving the score 29-46. The Mustangs were able to add 22 points to their score at the end of the fourth quarter, but unfortunately could not pull off the win, ending the game in a final score of 44-68. Senior Alex Ehrman commented: “I am proud of the boys for finishing the regular season working hard, and never giving up.” Ehrman and Oakley Rosno scored eight 3-pointers, helping the team out tremendously putting 35 points on the scoreboard together. With their quick hands, Ehrman, Rosno and Casey Cassell all had one steal each. Senior Taran Hanson said: “ Even though it was not a good end to our regular season. I still thought we fought hard, and put our best into the whole season.”

On Friday, February 8, the Mustang Men played their last game of the season on their home court in Roseland. It was Mustangs versus Mustangs as Silver Lake took on Meridian. For the four seniors- Johnny Borgman, Alex Ehrman, Casey Cassell, and Taran Hanson- this meant it was senior night, the last night these boys would play on their home court during their high school career.

In the first quarter, both teams came out strong each putting 10 points on the board. In the second quarter, Silver Lake proved that they wanted to win, outscoring Meridian 18-13 for a halftime score 28-23. Coming out of the locker room after halftime, Meridian put up a fight and was able to add 17 points to the score as Silver Lake added 14 making the score after the third quarter: Silver Lake 42- Meridian 40. Both teams were ready to win in the fourth quarter and gave it their all; however, Meridian came out on top and outscored Silver Lake 11- 8 for a final score of 51-50 in a heartbreaking game.

Alex Ehrman left everything on the court as the leading scorer with 22 points while Oakley Rosno and Blaine Simonton each contributed 9 points to the Silver Lake score.

On Thursday, February 7, the Mustang Men took on the Giltner Hornets in Giltner. The Mustangs came out strong, holding the Hornets to just 7 points as they were able to put 20 points on the board in the 1st quarter. The second quarter was almost exactly opposite as the Hornets scored 19 points and held the Mustangs to a mere 7; this made the half-time score 27-26, Mustangs up by 1. After half-time both teams proved they wanted to fight; however, Giltner fought a little harder outscoring Silver Lake 29-15 in the 3rd quarter. With a scoreless 4th quarter the game ended with a final score of Mustangs 42- Giltner 55. Scoring for the Mustangs were Alex Ehman with 25 points against the Hornets and Oakley Rosno putting 13 points on the board in an attempt to beat the Hornets. Ehrman commented on the game, “We came out hot in the 1st quarter, but we knew coming out in the 2nd quarter they weren’t just going to give up. In the end, we never gave up and left it all out on the court.”

For the first round of the Twin Valley Conference Tournament, the Silver Lake boys basketball team traversed to Deshler for the first round of the Tournament. The Mustangs didn’t start the game out with enough intensity, leaving the Mustangs behind by 23 points at the end of the half. Deshler didn’t let up intensity-wise during the last half of the game. The Mustangs were unable to push through and get the win. At the last buzzer, the final score of the game was 43-82. Senior Johnny Borgman was the top scorer of the night with a total of 18 points. Freshman Oakley Rosno also put 11 points onto the scoreboard. For the next game of the tournament, the Mustangs will take on Franklin at Shelton.

Playing for 7th and 8th, Silver Lake faced the Franklin Flyers, which they had beat previously in the season, 49-28. The game on Thursday, January 31, was a nail biter. Franklin started the game out with a bang, scoring 6 more points than the Mustangs. “We told the boys to step up the intensity a lot more on defense and changed up our offense to get more looks,” commented Coach Ehrman when asked what the team did differently after the first quarter. The Mustangs closed the score gap at the half, leaving it at 20-21. The Flyers pulled back ahead in the third, with a score of 24-28. In the fourth, the Mustangs battled, outscoring the Flyers by five points for the win. Sophomore Matthew Hansen stepped up and played a big role in the game, scoring 15 points. Borgman assisted the team with 7 offensive rebounds and 1 defensive. The Mustangs placed seventh in the Twin Valley Conference.

On Tuesday, January 22, the Mustang Men took on the Wilcox-Hildreth Falcons. The first quarter ended with a score of 12-13 with Silver Lake in the lead. That led to half time that ended with a score of 25-18, with Wilcox-Hildreth stealing the lead from the Mustangs. The third quarter proved to still be tough for the Mustangs, with Wilcox-Hildreth keeping the lead and ending the quarter with a score of 44-34. The final score of the game was 61-42,  as the Falcons stole the win from the Mustangs. Alex Ehrman scored a whopping 23 points in this game. Johnny Borgman got a total of 5 rebounds and 2 assists throughout the game.

Later in the week, the Silver Lake Mustang boys played Lawrence-Nelson in a close game. The first quarter ended with a score of 11-9, with Silver Lake in the lead over the Raiders; however, Lawrence-Nelson quickly took that lead away from the Mustangs in the second half, leading 22-18 going into half time. The Mustangs were able to score 12 points, keeping up with the Raiders but still trailing behind as the third quarter ended with a score of 30-35. In the fourth quarter the Mustangs scored a whopping total of 20 points but sadly couldn’t bring home a win with the game ending with a final score of 55-50. During this game, Ehrman broke the school record for the most 3-point shots made in a season. Ehrman scored 18 points in this game as Borgman scored 14 points throughout the game. Oakley Rosno scored 13, knocking down four 3-pointers. Ehrman stated, “I thought we played hard and never gave up. Even when we were down by double digits with a couple minutes left then came back and tied it up. I'm proud of the guys for the effort that they gave. It's a pretty cool feeling that I was able to achieve this record, but it definitely wouldn't have been possible without all my teammates.”

The Mustang boys had a great game against the Flyers blowing them out of the water 49-28. Having an outstanding game of threes, Alex Ehrman and Oakley Rosno drained three after three and tied the school record with 9 three-pointers in a game. Ehrman also shot a high percentage of free-throws at 71%. The boys had a good game, which was due in part to an outstanding second quarter where the Mustangs added 22 points and held the Flyers to 7. Silver Lake outscored the Flyers by 1 point in the second half, but were still able to easily claim the victory.

For the second time taking on the Warriors, the Mustangs put up an even bigger fight than before. Taking the win, the Mustangs, scored 53 points to Red Cloud’s 25 with Rosno being the highest scorer with 17 points altogether. Following with 15 was Ehrman. Looking on the free-throw side, Johnny Borgman went 100% for his free throws. The first quarter was a great start for the Mustangs, scoring 10 of there 53 points. The second quarter was a big jump scoring 22 points, holding Red Cloud to only scoring 3. The third quarter was a little closer with the Mustangs scoring 13 and Red Cloud scoring 10. With these two impressive games, the Mustang Men added two more wins to their record.

The Mustang Men kicked off a long week of basketball on Monday, January 7 on their home court against the Heartland-Lutheran Red Hornets. The Mustangs started out strong, outscoring the Hornets in the first quarter 14-6. The second quarter proved to be slightly tougher with the Mustangs scoring 8 points while the Hornets scored 10 points for a halftime score of Mustangs 22- Hornets 16. The third quarter was a replay of the second quarter as the ‘Stangs scored another 8 points, and they allowed the Hornets to score 10. Going into the fourth quarter with a score of Mustangs 30- Hornets 26 proved to be a challenge for the Mustang Men. Silver Lake scored only 6 points and allowed the Hornets to put 19 points on the board for a final score of Silver Lake 36- Heartland Lutheran 45. Top scorers for the boys were Alex Ehrman with 10 points, followed closely by Oakley Rosno with 9, and Johnny Borgman putting 5 points up on the board.

Continuing the week on Friday, January 11, the Mustangs took on the Harvard Cardinals on their home court. The Mustangs had a slow start in the first quarter as the Cardinals out scored them 9-1. During the second quarter of the game, the ‘Stangs stepped up their intensity and weren’t far behind the Cardinals. In the second quarter, the Mustangs scored 11 points as in the Cardinals scored 10, making the halftime score 19-12. Coming out of the locker room with a better attitude, the Mustangs outscored the Cardinals 14-8. The fourth quarter had the fans on their feet as regulation ended with a tie of 40 points, sending the game into overtime. The final score after overtime ended was 49-43, with the Mustangs sadly trailing behind by 6 points. The top leading scorers were Ehrman with 15 points, Rosno with 12, and Borgman with 8. Although the Mustangs weren’t able to come away with the win, Ehrman was able to break the record of most 3-pointers in a career (96) with a deep shot past half-court. Ehrman commented on the game, “We started out really slow, but something I’ve learned about this team throughout the year is we never give up; that held true with this game. We fought back and eventually took the lead after being down by 16 in the second quarter. In the end, we just weren’t able to pull out the win.”

To finish off the week, the Mustangs played on Saturday against the Loomis Wolves. They came out with a great start, all pumped up and ready to go. The end of the first quarter was Silver Lake- 11, Loomis-19. As the second quarter went on, the Mustangs kept up their momentum and scored more than they did in the first quarter. They scored 15 more points as the Wolves scored 12 more points. At halftime, the score came to Silver Lake- 26, Loomis- 31. During the third quarter the Mustangs started trailing behind, not playing as well as they came out in the first half only scoring 4 points in the third quarter. The Wolves scored a total of 15 points. During the fourth quarter the Mustangs added 6 more points while Loomis put up 20 more points. The final score for the game was Loomis coming out on top with 66-36. The top leading scorers for the game were Rosno with 15, Ehrman with 9, and Borgman with 6.

On the 20th of December, the Mustangs took on the Red Cloud Warriors on their home court to have a chance of adding a win to their record. Sophomore Kerigan Karr stated, “With this team, it feels really good to play with everybody you know because it is a lot easier to communicate and to get along better as well.” With that said, Abbie Skupa led the team with total points of 17, followed by Kerigan Karr with 9, Elizabeth Trausch with 6, Amanda Ehrman with 5, and Katelyn Karr with 3. Kerigan Karr and E. Trausch led the team in steals with three each. The girl’s hustle paid off with a final score of 40-29 in their favor, bettering their record to 4-2 on the year.

“With our hustle and our communication, we were able to take a win from the Red Cloud Warriors,” commented sophomore Luke Swanson. Freshman Trey Merrill led the Mustangs with 20 points. Additionally, Freshman Oakley Rosno led the team with 8 steals, followed by Merrill with 3, and seniors Alex Ehrman and Casey Cassell with 2 each. Sophomore Canyen Jameson had a perfect record of shooting free throws against the Warriors, going 2 for 2. After all the commotion of running down the court, the boys stole the win from the Warriors with an ending score of 54-22. With the win, the boys’ record improved to 2-4 on the year.

The Silver Lake Mustangs couldn’t put the win in the books on Tuesday, December 4 against the Axtell Wildcats for their first home game of the season. The Mustang Men fought hard but couldn't pull it off in a loss with a close score of 66-52. The scoring leaders for the game were: Alex Ehrman with 20 points, following behind him were Trey Merrill with 15, Matthew Hansen with 7, and Johnny Borgman with 6. Ehrman had to say this about the game against Axtell: “I thought we played good and kept up until the third quarter. Then the fourth quarter hit and we started to run out of energy and the game slipped away.” The first and second quarter were battles, with the score after eight minutes Mustangs 12 and Wildcats 10. At the half, Silver Lake was leading Axtell by one by putting up 22 points in the half. After the second half, the Mustangs started running out of energy, with Axtell ending the quarter leading by 7. The Wildcats were able to clinch the win scoring 17 points to the Mustang’s 10 in the fourth quarter. 

The Mustangs made their way to Elba on Friday, December 7. The Mustangs came out strong and kept the lead for the entire game with an ending score of 62-11. The scoring leaders for the game were Ehrman with 13, Merrill with 9, Borgman and Lane Parr both contributed 6, and closely behind them was Derek Zubrod with 5. Come support the Mustang Men as they take on Kenesaw at their home court on Friday, December 14.