BUTLER – District opponents with a chippiness to them resulted in quite a few penalty yards between Lewis County and host Pendleton County.
In a game that could very well determine the fourth and final playoff spot in the Class 3A, 6th District, it was the Wildcats running away with a 46-8 victory Friday night in Butler.
A total of 23 penalties for 218 yards were whistled in the contest, a good bit of them coming after the play with personal fouls.
“Definitely a lot of negatives tonight. If you watch the film and if you were here, we’re not the least talented team on this field. Worst-case scenario we were very evenly matched but when you throw everything out there as far as penalties and just turnovers and just not smart football it adds up over a four quarter game,” Lions coach Bryan Hoover said.
While the penalties added up, it was the Wildcats taking advantage the most that even included something not often seen in games from them, completed forward passes.
The Wildcats came in with just one completion in their first three games, but a 36-yard touchdown pass got things going for them in the first. Gary Baker hit Garrett Grogan for the TD strike, building a 14-0 lead after Coen Fuller got his second special teams touchdown in as many weeks, returning a punt 45 yards for a score to open up the scoring in this one.
It was another forward pass that got the Wildcats to paydirt again, this time Ethan Verst hitting Oak Fields for one of his three touchdowns on the night to get it to 20-0 in the closing minutes of the first half.
“It’s no secret we’re a running team. That’s fine and we’re going to hang our hat on that and not try and do something we’re not cut out for,” Wildcats coach Brian Burgemeier said. But we got to do what you got to do, hats off to Lewis County, they had us their early and were shutting down our run game. Two touchdown passes there, we hardly throw two passes a game so we were thrilled with the execution of our players on those plays.”
The Lions were able to gather some momentum before the break, Dylan Hardy running one in with six seconds left in the second after escaping the pocket and scoring on a 19-yard touchdown run to make it 20-8 at halftime.
The emotions from the touchdown were quickly turned as the Wildcats started to do what they do best…run the football.
“We saw a couple open gaps there in the second half. They were really overcommiting to our sweep and we understood that and finally found a couple open gaps we could exploit there and once again players executed like they’re supposed to do and it paid off for us,” Burgemeier said.
Fields added two more scores to get the Wildcats a 36-8 cushion while things started to get a little out of hand with all the yellow flags on the field.
On two different occasions throughout the game, mutliple personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were whistled on both teams, the Lions ending with 11 penalties for 115 yards, the Wildcats with 12 penalties for 103 yards.
A saftey followed by a Jacob Pearson 30-yard touchdown run got the game to a running clock with 8:39 to play in the game.
The loss extends the Lions losing streak to 14 games and puts their postseason hopes in jeopardy now, most likely needing wins against Mason County and Fleming County to close out district play. They’ll get a bye week before they get the two over the following two weeks to assess and work on what they can control.
”We’ve got to go in and keep building on what we’ve done. I really feel like we’ve improved every week throughout the year. Our circumstances, these kids have been asked to do impossible things, learning new things in a tough environment, we just have to learn how to win. These kids have to learn how to win and they’re not accustomed to it and that’s one thing I’ve got to figure out how to coach. I’m struggling with it, but we’re going to work through it and we’re going to get better because of it,” Hoover said.
Outside of Hardy’s 19-yard scamper, yards were hard to come by as the Lions had just 23 from scrimmage for the game. Nine plays resulted in a loss of yards on the night. Three turnovers also played a part in the loss.
The Wildcats were led by Fields in the backfield as he ran for 111 yards on 12 carries. The Wildcats totaled 263 yards in the game, 210 of them coming on the ground.
After taking care of business this week and almost securing a playoff berth, the Wildcats can move up in district play with a win over Powell County next week. Both teams sit at 1-1 in the district after the Pirates lost to Fleming County Friday night, 27-16.
“Exciting game again coming up for us. Just one week at a time. We’re an option team, everybody knows that. We didn’t have those first two scrimmages to work the kinks out and we’ve had to make changes on our end and we’ll continue to do so,” Burgemeier said.
WILDCATS 46, LIONS 8
LEWIS COUNTY – 0-8-0-0 – 8
PENDLETON COUNTY – 14-8-8-16 – 46
Scoring
1ST QUARTER
(PC) Fuller 45-yard punt return (Run failed) 4:59
(PC) Baker 36-yard pass to Grogan (Fields run) :19
2ND QUARTER
(PC) Verst 10-yard pass to Fields (run failed) 1:46
(LC) Hardy 19-yard run (Howard run) :06
3RD QUARTER
(PC) Fields 16-yard run (Baker pass to Fields) 3:02
4TH QUARTER
(PC) Fields 7-yard run (Fuller run) 11:11
(PC) Safety 9:05
(PC) Pearson 30-yard run (Fields run) 8:39
Game Stats
Passing Yards: Lewis 11 (Hardy 6/16, Dummitt 0/3), Pendleton 53 (Verst 2/6, Baker 1/1)
Rushing Yards: Lewis 12 (Evans 5-14, Hardy 6-14, Burns 1-5, Howard 3-(minus) 4, Sizemore 4-(minus) 5, Dummitt 2-(minus) 12), Pendleton 210 (Fields 12-111, Rogers 7-50, Pearson 2-30, Redden 3-20, Thomas 5-12, Cox 1-0, Fuller 1-(minus) 1, Baker 4-(minus) 1, Miller 1-(minus) 2, Verst 3-(minus) 4, Morgan 2-(minus) 5)
Receiving: Lewis (Spencer 2-20, Burns 1-0, Howard 3-(minus) 9), Pendleton (Grogan 1-36, Fields 1-10. Redden 1-7)
Turnovers: Lewis 3, Pendleton 1
Penalties: Lewis 11-115, Pendleton 12-103
Records: Lewis County (0-4, 0-2), Pendleton County (2-2, 1-1)
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