Tri-Cities goalie Suchanek leads Czechia into World Juniors against Sweden

Tri-City Americans goalie Tomas Suchanek has helped his Czechia team advance to the World Juniors hockey semifinals and was set to play against Sweden on Wednesday.

Suchanek has helped lead Czechia to a 4-0-1-0 record in the tournament, and he’s stopped 100 of 107 shots he’s faced.

He’s also compiled 4 assists.

Regardless, he’s opened some NHL scouts’ eyes.

Teammate Adam Mechura, who also plays for the Americans, has also been contributing to Czechia’s run as a productive line mate.

The United States and Canada were set to meet in the other semifinal. The tournament championship game is set for Thursday.

▪ The Americans beat Spokane 7-6 in overtime in the annual New Year’s Eve game on Saturday night in the Toyota Center, which was a complete sellout.

Parker Bell scored the game-winner in OT, and he finished with a goal and 4 assists.

Reese Benton also added a goal and 4 assists, while Nick Avakyan took the win in net.

Lukas Dragicevic failed to get a point in the game for the first time in 28 contests. Dragicevic’s scoring streak ends at 27 games.

Football

▪ Kennewick High’s football team may just start being a feeder program for offensive linemen to WSU.

Recently, senior Ashton Tripp signed his letter of intent to play for the Cougars. Tripp was named Co-Lineman of the Year in the MCC.

Now, turns out WSU has offered Lions junior Nathan Knapik a scholarship.

▪ Jaxin McCallum spent his freshman season of college football playing five games for the 7-4 South Dakota School of Mines Hardrockers.

McCallum graduated in June of 2022 from Kamiakin, but now the 6-foot-4, 290-pound offensive lineman is moving on, having transferred to the University of Idaho, where he’ll play for the Vandals next fall.

▪ Chiawana grad AJ Vongphachanh had a pretty good season for the Utah State football team.

Listed as a senior, the linebacker led the Aggies in tackles with 92, and he was No. 1 in tackles for loss at 8.

Utah State lost 38-10 to Memphis last week in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl. But Vongphachanh had a great game for Utah State, collecting 9 tackles (2.5 for loss).

What’s better is he might come back to Utah State for one more season. Even though he’s a senior, he has another season of eligibility remaining.

▪ Zach Borisch has had some great moments for the University of Idaho football team. The former Kamiakin standout ran roughshod as an option quarterback for the Vandals a couple of seasons ago in a win over Eastern Washington University.

He has played at running back too, as well as spent some time on defense.

But he didn’t get much of an opportunity to play for Idaho this past season. So on Nov. 30, Borisch entered the transfer portal.

It took him just three weeks to find a new home.

On Dec. 21, he announced that he’ll play at East Tennessee State University. He’ll have two seasons of eligibility left.

Prep basketball

I mentioned last week that Kamiakin senior Nikole Thomas was the closest girls basketball player in the MCC to 1,000 career points at 753.

Apparently, Parker Hodge has updated his website, and Thomas — who is committed to the University of Memphis — is now at 953 career points. She’s just 47 points away from the magic number. It should happen within the next two weeks.

▪ Upcoming top Mid-Columbia Conference games this week, as the high schools get back to a full schedule after the Christmas Break:

Chiawana travels to Pasco on Thursday for the annual tripleheader. It all starts at 4 p.m. with the girls varsity basketball game. At 6 p.m., they’ll roll out the mats as the varsity boys wrestling match happens between two of the better MCC squads. Finally, they’ll roll the mats back up, and at 8 p.m., the boys basketball teams tangle.

On Friday, two big boys-girls doubleheaders: Kamiakin at Kennewick, and Richland at Chiawana. It starts at 5:45 p.m. at both places.

Finally, Kamiakin visits Walla Walla in a boys-girls twinbill, with the girls game tipping off at 3:15 p.m.

Wrestling

▪ Othello’s Thalia Gallegos earned the 170-pound crown at the HammerHead Invitational on Dec. 17 in Bremerton.

▪ Hermiston dominated the Rick Sanders Invitational in Portland on Dec. 10, as the Bulldogs took the team title and six individual championships.

Freshman Desirae Juarez (135 pounds), junior Elena Flores (140), senior Loreno Guardado (145), junior Laura Meyers (155), sophomore Jorgia McKim (190) and junior Hadley White (235) were all winners in their weight classes.

College basketball

▪ Maddie Godwin scored 23 points to lead the Corban University women’s basketball team over Northwest University 63-52 in a game on Saturday night.

Godwin graduated from Liberty Christian School in Richland, then spent two seasons at Wenatchee Valley Community College before transferring to Corban.

She leads Corban (which is 8-5) in scoring, averaging 11.5 points a game.