Royal Oak Sports Roundup

Highlights of what’s happening in varsity sports:

Football

A tough on the road in Pontiac on Saturday dropped the Ravens varsity football team to 1-5 and 0-5 in league play. Still, Head Coach Jeff Hill explained the team is making mistakes that are fixable.

"We had a good first half. They just capitalized on our mistakes due to their athletic ability," Hill said. "In the second half we didn't come out and play the kind of football we wanted to play. They made some plays and things got out of hand pretty fast."

Hill is confident the team can learn from its mistakes. "The mistakes are very correctible and the kids can learn from the experience," he said. "They're growing up as football players. Sometimes you've got to go through the fire and get hardened like steel."

The fire gets hotter and the learning curve gets steeper this week as Top 10 ranked Clarkston comes to Raven Field this Friday night. Clarkston is 4-2 on the year with its two losses coming as forfeits for games already won as they used an ineligible player.

"Clarkston is one of the better high school teams in the state this year," Hill said. "They are well rounded and very solid on offensive and defensive lines. They have great running backs. It's going to be a great challenge and we have to do a lot of things right in order to be able to compete with them."

Even though the Ravens have lost five games in a row, the team is still improving and coming together, Hill said.

"I'm very happy with the overall attitude of our kids," he explained. "We are having solid practices and we are getting better every day. That's not showing up in the scoreboard, but the kids are giving us effort and it will eventually show up on the scoreboard."

Boys soccer

Tough losses to Berkley last night and Lake Orion over the weekend puts the Ravens' boys varsity soccer team overall record at 3-7-1. Head Coach Anna Lukezich said the team is playing tough despite the losses.

"We played great, dominated and outshot them," she said. "We just need to put it in the back of the net."

The team hosts Andover on Thursday at Raven Field at 6:45 p.m.

Girls swimming

The team is 2-2-1 on the season (results from Tuesday night's home meet with Lathrup are not in yet) with its latest outing a road loss to West Bloomfield. The Ravens travel to Hazel Park on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Girls Volleyball

Now 3-8 on the year and 3-2 in league play, the Ravens lost on Tuesday to Berkley 20-25, 12-25 and 24-26. The team will host Avondale on Thursday at 7 p.m. and travels to Andover on Saturday for a multi-team tournament.

This past week the team picked up a 3-0 match win over Oak Park, 25-9, 24-14 and 25-8. Paige Smith had eight kills and five digs. Alexa Gazda had 11 digs and seven aces in the match. Last Thursday the team hosted Southfield and took a three match loss 14-25, 23-25 and 23-25.

Girls Golf

Team final results aren't available yet from Tuesday's OAA second nine-hole league match at Fieldstone in Auburn Hills. But individually, Olivia DeMarco shot a 51 followed by Sara Uelmen ta 55, Dagney Gosset's 62 and Summer North's 65. On Monday the Ravens added a league win, 217-220, over Berkley. Scoring for Royal Oak were Uelmen leading with a 51, Gossett with a 53, DeMarco with a 54 and Madyson Szydlowski with a 59.

 Last Thursday's match with Clawson was abbreviated to only six holes due to rain but the Ravens picked up the win. Last Wednesday, the lady linksters hosted Pontiac and posted a victory. Royal Oak won 213-249. DeMarco led the team with a 48 for nine holes. She was followed by Gossett's 49, Szydlowski's 56 and Rachel Rusinowski's 60.

Royal Oak is 6-0 in Blue OAA League play and 7-2 overall.

Next up for the Ravens is on Thursday to compete in regional action at Tanglewood Golf Course.

Cross-country

The girls and boys cross-country teams each took home a second-place trophy from the Center Line Schoensee Memorial Invitational on Saturday.

On Tuesday and met at , the outcomes were split: the Knights took the girls race 22-33 and Ravens won the boys race 24-32. But the competition didn't stop there.

Following the 5K races, there were 2-mile, 1-mile and a 1/4-mile "Raven Run" race as part of . Teams from and Our Lady of LaSalette in Berkley as well as intramural program competed. Ravens coaches Ryan Piippo and David Barnett wanted the event to introduce the community to the lifelong sport of running.