By Mike Drooger –

“The Wheels on the Bus” is an American folk song written by Verna Hills.  The lyrics “the wheels on the bus go round and round” are popular with children.  It’s appropriate a person with the last name of Hills wrote the song because Hills is where the Edgerton Flying Dutchmen boys played on Friday night, February 3.

Unfortunately though for the Dutchmen, the lyrics of the wheels going round and round were not accurate.  It was more a case of the wheels fell off the bus.  Things were looking good early for Head Coach Doug Van Kley’s Dutchmen when they led 14-8.  But then the lug nuts on the Dutchmen bus started to come loose—one by one.  At halftime the Dutchmen trailed 15-35.  It got worse in the second half until the Dutchmen made a minor move against the Patriots substitutes, but when the final buzzer sounded, HBC enjoyed a 67-46 victory.

Edgerton’s first 14 points came from a variety of players in a variety of ways.  Kade Moffitt began the scoring with a free throw.  Chase Bootsma assisted Blake Schultz for two.  Jared Fischer muscled an offensive rebound away from the Patriots and scored.  When Connor Ockenga assisted Fischer, the Dutchmen led 8-4 prompting an HBC timeout.  Once play resumed, the Patriots tied the score, but Edgerton quickly retaliated.  Moffitt hit a two.  Bootsma drove hard to the hoop and scored.  After Bootsma assisted Fischer down low, Edgerton had its before-mentioned 14-8 cushion.  And that was more or less the highlight of the evening as far as the visitors from Edgerton were concerned.

Just as well as they had played to score 14 was how poorly they performed to be outscored 27-1.  Turnovers, offensive fouls when the player could have pulled up from six feet rather than charge into a stationary defender, and a shooting percentage so cold it rivaled the outdoor temperature of four degrees were all responsible for the unimaginable HBC run that put the game far out of reach by halftime.

(Photos by Tanya O’Leary)