Charger Boys Win Season Opener Over Madrid, 69-53

One never knows how an athletic team will perform in its season opening contest, but ACGC coaches and fans alike had to feel pretty good about the team's 69-53 win over Madrid on Friday, especially when Miles Kading opened the Charger scoring with three consecutive treys. Kading's nine first quarter points set the course for the evening and was a big factor in the team's 24-19 opening quarter lead. Although it never became a rout, ACGC was in control throughout the game to open the season on a victorious note.

Holding an eleven point halftime lead at 38-27, the Chargers broke the game open with a twenty point third quarter in which the home team connected on six three pointers. While the Chargers were hitting from long range, their defense held the Tigers to two free throws over the last three and a half minutes of the quarter. By quarter's end the lead had increased to 56-37. The teams played evenly over the final quarter as the Chargers picked up their first win over the Tigers after six consecutive losses.

"I thought we played pretty well for this being our first game," Charger coach Lance Kading said following the game, "especially when you consider that we had fairly limited practice. We had five practices to start with, then we got shut down for nine days, and then had just four more practices when we returned.

"We got off to a good start, scoring twenty four points in the first quarter. That gave us a small cushion while we got our defense going. We had only thirteen turnovers, but a number of them were avoidable. Overall I was pleased with the performance. We had good balance in our scoring and did a nice job of rebounding for the most part."

The balance Kading was referring to included four starters who scored in double figures. The Kading brothers, Miles and Eli, scored 21 and 16 points respectively, while Lucas Marsh and Charlie Crawford each connected for 12. Eli Kading led the team in rebounds with 13, while Miles dished out 5 assists.

As a team ACGC connected on 25 of 71 shots for 35% that included 11 makes of 37 three ball tries. The team connected on 8 of 14 free throws for 57%.

The Chargers will continue their home stand when then entertain Des Moines Christian on Tuesday. The girls' game is scheduled for 6 PM, with the boys to follow.

Score by quarter:

Madrid 19 8 10 16--53

ACGC 24 14 18 13--69

Individual stats: total points-rebounds-asists- steals: EKading: 16-13-3-1; BMarsh: 2-4-2-1; Crawford: 12-2-2-4; LMarsh: 12-10-1-4; MKading: 21-5-5-3; Wardyn: 2-1-0-0; Rogers: 4-4-1-0; Littler: 0-0-0-0