COLUMBIA CITY – The Whitko Wildcats may have outgained Columbia City in total offense, but the host Eagles shined where it mattered, as they beat their Whitley County rival 34-14 Friday night at Max Gandy Athletic Field. The Wildcats were productive on the ground, gaining 311 of the 370 total yards by way of Ethan Nicodemus, Tanner Hughes, Devin Gerding and Trace Killian. The ‘Cats also had 19 first downs to Columbia City’s 15. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team. Last week, we put the ball on the ground seven times and lost four fumbles. We didn’t have any tonight,” said Whitko head coach Josh Mohr. “Our kids fought through the entire game, and we were moving the ball.” It took a little while before the scoring commenced, as both teams failed to score any points on their opening drives. The Eagles found their home run play first, with quarterback Travis Herbst finding an open receiver in Dayne Apslund, who made a couple nice moves downfield to score from 45 yards out. Whitko halfback Trace Killian almost broke free on the ensuing drive, but otherwise had an impressive 57 yard rush to take it deep into Eagles’ territory. A couple runs from Nicodemus and Hughes pit the ‘Cats on the 1-yard-line, but a costly penalty and a tough Eagles defense forced them to turn the ball over. It was one of the few missed opportunities that kept the Wildcats from stealing a victory on the road. “We got down in the red zone twice in the first half, inside the 5 even,” said Mohr. “We just got to finish those drives off. We had a couple hiccups here and there, we just got to finish that off.” The game was still overshadowed by the injury to the Eagles’ Sam Dailey, who was still listed in fair condition in a hospital after last week’s game against Warsaw. “My hat’s off to Columbia City. They went through a big, emotional week with Sam,” said Mohr. “To come out here with that on their minds and go through their week of preparation with that on their minds, their kids came out and fought hard. I couldn’t be more proud of both teams in a situation like that. They just fought the entire game.” Herbst brought out Dailey’s jersey as the team charged onto the field before the opening kickoff in honor of his teammate. At the end of the game, Dailey was also named Player of the Game by the school. Whitko will look to get in the win column as they begin their Three Rivers Conference slate next Friday, when they visit Southwood. The Knights are coming home to host the Wildcats after taking a 36-7 drubbing from Oak Hill. Mohr would like to work out the small kinks before kicking things off in the TRC. “We are just going to continue to improve on what we are doing. There’s some little things here and there, and that’s all it is. We are just going to get better at what we do.”
COL. CITY 34, WHITKO 14 W 0 0 7 7 — 14 CC 7 7 14 6 — 34
W EN 1st downs 19 15 Rushing yds 311 221 Passing yds 59 74 Comp-Att-Int 3-12-3 3-8-0 Total yds 370 295 Fumbles/lost 3/0 1/0 Penalties/yds 5/42 4/31
First Quarter CC – Travis Herbst 45 pass to Dayne Asplund 3:17, 7-0 Second Quarter CC – Braden Myer 1 run 2:50, 14-0 Third Quarter CC – Myer 1 run 4:24, 21-0 CC – Herbst 4 run 4:01, 28-0 W – Tanner Hughes 1 run 28-7 Fourth Quarter W – Tanner Hughes 5 run 7:58, 28-14 CC – Herbst 8 pass to Justin Bachelder 34-14
