Another Firelands Challenge Shakeup...
Round III Produces New Leader...
The third round of the Firelands Challenge season produced some big changes on the leader board. Huron took over in first place, while Norwalk dropped from first to third. In the biggest change, Port Clinton moved from fifth place to second place.
In the final match of the round, Port Clinton’s team jumped out to a 16 – 0 – 0 lead over the teams from Bellevue and Oak Harbor. It answered every question in the Current Events and American Literature categories before the other teams scored their first points.
Port Clinton more than doubled the scores of the opponents by the midpoint of the match by picking up 12 bonus points. It never looked back in winning the match with a final score of 59, the highest score by any team in Round III. Bellevue scored 25 and Oak Harbor 14.
Norwalk had a difficult time in facing last year’s co-champion, St. Mary Central Catholic. Although it led St. Mary by five points at the match’s midpoint, it missed its Team Choice question on Sports. St. Mary picked up the bonus points and answered its own Team Choice question on Sports to take the lead.
St. Mary went on to win its match with 42 points. Norwalk finished with 37 and Margaretta ended with 31.
Huron’s victory in the first match of the round moved it into first place in the standings. It used a strong second half performance to earn 49 points and defeat Perkins (38) and New London (22). Perkins dropped from fourth to fifth place in the standings after this match.
Other match scores included:
- St. Paul 39, Willard 31, So. Central 26
- Edison 33, Danbury 31, W. Reserve 26
- Sandusky 22, Lakota 16, Monroeville 7
Teams are allowed to appeal answers that were ruled as incorrect. There are some appeals pending so there may be some slight adjustment to the match scores.
The top five teams and their cumulative scores after Round III are:
Huron 161
Port Clinton 156
Norwalk 152
St. Mary CC 147
Perkins 137