WALTON - The Whitko Wildcats knew they were going to have their hands full with the Class 2A, third-ranked Lewis Cass Kings Friday.
And they did.
Being outdone 393-79 in total offense, the Wildcats were defeated 27-0 at Lewis Cass in the second round of Sectional 26 football action."I'm proud of the guys," Whitko coach Wayne Swender said. "They had a good week of practice. They knew they had this challenge in front of them and they didn't look like they were going to pack it in. They came down with the attitude that upsets happen every weekend. We came down looking for one."
Through the first quarter-and-a-half, it appeared as if Whitko would give Lewis Cass a tight contest.
On consecutive Cass drives, the Wildcats recovered a fumble in the end zone and stopped the Kings on a fourth-and-three from the Whitko 14-yard line. With the defensive stands, Whitko had a 0-0 game on its hands midway through the second quarter.
Following the fourth-down stand, the Whitko offense sputtered, going three-and-out.
On their ensuing possession, Cass drove the ball 45 yards to the end zone, only to have junior Aaron Richardson fumble the ball as he crossed the goal line. Unlike the Kings' first fumble in the end zone, Cass junior lineman Levi Byers pounced on the ball, giving his team a 7-0 lead with 5:13 left in the half.
Later in the half, Whitko had its best drive, moving the ball 24 yards on seven plays before being forced to punt the ball on fourth-and-13 with just 28 seconds remaining. Following a Whitko timeout, Wildcats senior punter Todd Reed had trouble getting the kick off, being tackled at the 30-yard line.
Just 30 yards from the end zone, and with 23 seconds left in the half, Cass junior quarterback Damon Foreman found senior running back Colton Zeck for a 30-yard touchdown, upping the lead to 14-0 at the half.
"We kind of got out-of-sync there with the play," Swender said of the botched punt. "It was my fault. We gave up the touchdown, and that kind of broke us right there."
Whitko ended the first half with 30 yards of total offense, including negative-six yards rushing. On the flip side, Cass ran the ball 27 times for 146 yards in the opening half, while picking up another 74 yards through the air.
Making life tough on the Wildcats was the Kings' multi-faceted rushing attack.
With five guys at least five carries, Zeck led the attack with 116 yards, followed by senior Keith Lee's 48, junior Cody Larimore's 41 and junior Derrick Worden's 30.
"Their offensive line just did a good job of getting off the ball," Swender said. "They're big and physical. The backs are good, and that offensive line is one of the reasons."
That offensive line helped the Kings score another 13 points in the second half, but with Whitko's offense struggling, the added points were just icing on the cake.
The Wildcats were led by senior running back Adam Jarrell's 54 rushing yards on 11 carries, while the whole team got just 39 total rushing yards, thanks to two bad punting plays.
Through the air, junior quarterback Gabe Starkey completed 5 of 17 passes for 40 yards, three of which went to sophomore Bradley Ruckman for 37 yards.
"We felt we wanted to have a little different look," Swender said of going to the air early and often. "If we weren't going to be able to move the ball consistently, we wanted to do something with the spread (offense). We felt we wanted to try that and see what the results would be."
No matter what offense the Wildcats ran, the bigger, stronger Kings had an answer, therefore moving on to next Friday's sectional championship against No. 6 Oak Hill.
"We came out with a lot of intensity in the first half," Swender said. "Their size and strength kind of wore us down. We lost to a very good team, obviously."
