FORT WAYNE – Whitko's football team gave up the first six points 29 seconds into the game and turned the ball five times over the course of the game, but the Wildcats' fans were all cheers when the clock read 0:00 Friday at Fort Wayne Concordia. Despite the turnover margin and time of possession, it was the resiliency of the Whitko Wildcats that led them to a come-from-behind victory as they defeated the Fort Wayne Concordia Cadets 18-15 in Class 3A Sectional 18 action at Zollner Field in Fort Wayne. With the win, Whitko advances to the sectional semifinals, as the Wildcats travel to Garrett Friday. Garrett advanced by defeating Tippecanoe Valley 27-14 Friday in Akron. In the opening-round win, Whitko junior Jake Nissley converted a 33-yard field goal with 2:06 remaining in the game, and senior cornerback Lucky Winters ensured the victory by picking off a pass from Concordia's Tanner Spencer with 1:36 remaining in the game. "I must catch it, because if I don't, then I let down my team," Winters said. "I had to get that interception, I had to get it." Whitko was not expecting the game to start out the way it did. Concordia halfback Michael Hicks bursted through a gap to begin the opening possession with a 60-yard touchdown run, but. Nathan Eschweiler was not able to convert the extra point, leaving it a 6-point margin to begin the game. Hicks would put on a clinic in front of the home crowd, as he ripped another big run early in the second quarter, extending the Cadets' lead to 13-0 after running 90-yards to the end zone. Early on, it seemed as though Whitko had no answer for Hicks. The Wildcats finally got on the board with 3:54 remaining in the first half when junior quarterback Alex Stoddard completed an 80-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout Connor Stouder to bring the Wildcats within 13-7 in the late stages of the half. Briefly, momentum was shifting in favor of the Wildcats but that ended quickly when Concordia's James Bradley recorded a safety after bringing down Stoddard with 1:22 remaining to go into the half with a 15-7 lead. The players and coaches were seemingly upset. Coming out of halftime, Whitko had a completely different look to them. "We had talked about the intensity of the game and how we were beating ourselves with some mistakes," Whitko coach Wayne Swender said. "The lack of intensity was the biggest. We just told them to go back to the fundamentals, just to get back to blocking and tackling." The defense held the Cadets scoreless in the second half, forcing the Cadets to turn the ball over twice and punt the ball away for the rest of the game. Stoddard made some more key plays, moving the ball aggressively against the Cadets including an impressive 33-yard strike to senior wideout Derek Snep, and a 46-yard run with 11:05 remaining in the game to bring the Wildcats within two points. Attempting the 2-point conversion, Whitko had committed a false start penalty, moving the ball to the 8-yard line. Swender took the advice of his players and had drawn up a play that allowed Stoddard to find senior running back Chris Bumbaugh in the back of the end zone for the 2-point conversion. "We said 'OK', you guys make it work, then," Swender said about the play call. On the ensuing possession, the Wildcat defense continued to frustrate the Cadets, giving themselves another chance to score and possibly take the lead for the first time in the game. A poor punt Concordia placed Whitko on their own 45-yard line with 6:01 remaining. Concordia, having all three timeouts remaining, was hoping for Nissley to miss after he had already missed a 38-yard field goal attempt earlier in the game. However, Nissley made a 34-yarder and helped Whitko take the lead. On Concordia's final possession, they were throwing deep downfield, but could only be so close as Spencer's passes would go off of the finger tips of his receivers before Winters had ended their season with an interception. Going into their second-round matchup, Whitko is familiar with Garrett, as the Wildcats scrimmaged against the Railroaders in mid-August and will get a good look at running back Todd Frickey, who's run for over 1,400 yards this season. "He's obviously very fast," Swender said of Frickey. "He's one of the fastest kids in the state. We have to be able to contain him." In preparation for next week, Swender says they need to work on the fundamentals, but more importantly: "We've got to hold on to the ball."
