The Cozad Haymakers waltzed into their matchup on Tuesday with three straight wins but they left with four. They claimed a resounding 72-32 victory over Sandhills Valley at home. With Cozad ahead 38-12 at the half, the matchup was all but over already.
It was another big night for Noah Shoemaker, who scored 26 points along with three steals. He has been hot recently, having posted 16 or more points the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Monty Brooks-follmer, who scored 15 points along with four steals.
Cooper Layher and Leyton Connell certainly did their best on Tuesday to avoid the loss. Layher scored 12 points along with eight rebounds, while Connell scored four points along with three steals.
Cozad is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 18-4 record this season. As for Sandhills Valley, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 10-9.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Cozad will take on Broken Bow at 7:45 p.m. on Thursday. Broken Bow will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Nebraska Rankings (they are ranked 214th, while Cozad is ranked 20th). As for Sandhills Valley, they will head out on the road to face off against Mullen on Thursday. Hopefully Sandhills Valley focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 20 on Tuesday.
