Bluebirds Hustle and Fight Hard
Goessel Girls Basketball – @ Goessel v. Canton-Galva Eagles Tuesday December 9, 2025
Goessel has hosted its Classic now for 19 straight years. The event has evolved into a high profile small school
tourney with several local participants with state potential participating each year. The 2025 Classic girls side
features Little River (#1 KBCA 1A Div I), Linn (#2 KBCA 1A Div II) and Central Christian (#8 KBCA 1A Div II).
Goessel’s girls this year were thrust up against local rival Canton-Galva in the 2 nd day Tuesday round – the
Eagles played Monday night as well, losing to a very tough Linn squad 26-55.
The Bluebirds’ long range game was not on track until the 4 th quarter tonight and the Eagles put up four treys
early to take a 6-14 lead after one quarter. Highlights early for the Blue were a steal and coast to coast run for
Bella O’Neill and Delaney Duerksen getting fouled outside the perimeter to stay at 4-7. Duerksen zigzagged to
the hoop to end the stanza at 6-14. At 7:17 in the 2 nd period, Duerksen wiggled and jiggled one in from deep
but Junior #3 Hoppes from CG went 3 for 3 from 3 to nearly put this one in the deep freeze at 9-19. Timeout
Goessel 6:13. Both Claire Claassen and Duerksen went hard to the hoop and were fouled and neither were
able to convert at the line. The Hoppes/Espinoza duo kept pounding and scoring for the visitors. Late in the
half, Abi Johnson had a tremendous turn in the paint off a great O board to stay at 11-26 and with 1:23
remaining #23 Jayley Schmidt pulled another tremendous rebound, went back up and finished the 7-15 quarter
13-29.
At 4:55 Goessel’s O’Neill launched a high arc from the deep SE corner that was so perfect it is now used as a
physics illustration. 16-33. In a hard fought tussle underneath, Isabelle Alderfer emerged from the scrum for
two more and, at 18-33, fans’ attention was ready to go. Moments later, Mackenzie Voth floated a solid 15
footer in to get within 15, 20-35 but the Eagles flew to 20-42 with a 0-7 run to close the 7-13 quarter at 20-42.
Tonight’s 4 th quarter went all Blue. O’Neill set and delivered from the top of the key, so smooth and “lights
out” in an unusual move the Goessel City Council actually voted to give her the best Christmas lights display for
2025. At 5:47, she found the range on yet another deep shot, this one representative of the great hustle
exhibited by the entire Bluebird squad . O’Neill’s afterburner was on and she went hard to the hoop, was
fouled and converted both to get to 28-44 and Canton-Galva called time at 2:58. Duerksen also found the
range, igniting for a long Caitlyn Clark fling at 1:46 to go to 31-49. Amid the cheer team’s “Go Big Blue”
Goessel put on front court pressure, but could not contain the effective Eagle ball handling and this one slid
deeper to 31-51. Goessel converted a nifty steal at half court, moved quickly to O’Neill in the corner, and just
in front of the Funk twins in the stands, hit yet another marvelous deep ball 36-51. This one finished at 36-53
after an excellent 16-11 4 th quarter. The shooting ignited in the 4 th unfortunately a bit too late to salvage this
one. The Bluebirds will face an excellent Linn team (Week 1 Kansas Basketball Coaches Association #2 1A Div
II) at approximately 7:00 pm Friday.
Bella O’Neill led the Bluebird squad tonight with 16 and was perfect 2/2 from the line. Eleven of her points
came in the 4 th quarter. Duerksen had 9. Johnson put up 5, and Voth, Alderfer and Schmidt each tallied 2.
Both Alderfer and Johnson pulled significant rebounds tonight. Hailey Rosfeld, Sofia Flores and Claire Claassen
were also in for the Bluebirds.
-Karl Brubaker
