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Wildcats and Knights both meet defeat

By Staff | Oct 26, 2011

The 2011 West Virginia High School football season has not been kind at all to Paden City’s Wildcats nor Tyler Consolidated’s Silver Knight teams this year. The Wildcats season record stands at three wins and five losses thus far while Consolidated is still looking for their first win. With only two games remaining on both schedules, Paden City is hoping to wind up with an even 5-5 and the Knights are looking to salvage their season by winning the last two.

Wildcats

The Wildcats played host to the Beallsville Blue Devils on Friday at Berger Field, already knowing their opponent would be a formidable foe. Beallsville lived up to their reputation, handily taking the win, 47-14 and handing the Green and White their fifth loss of the season.

From the get-go, Beallsville dominated the game, putting their first score on the scoreboard in the first two minutes. By the end of the first quarter of play, the Blue led the game by 19.

In the opening seconds of the next stanza, Paden City’s Taylor Still took care of a hand-off, running it 61 yards down the field for a Wildcat touchdown. The senior rushing leader also ran in the extra point to chalk up two more points on the scoreboard for the home team.

The Devils, however, answered that score with one of their own and went on to add 14 more points to take the lead, 40-8 at the half.

Though they were at the disadvantage, the home team never gave up, and held their opponents scoreless in the third quarter. With just 2:43 to go in the third, Still came through again, running 18 yards for a score for the Green.

“Without a doubt, this is definitely the best team on our schedule,” said head coach of the Wildcats, Brent Croasmun. “But I’ve got to give it to our guys, they never gave up one time. They pushed and pushed and did the very best they could.”

“We just had to many mistakes to overcome, but that takes nothing away from them being such a good team.”

Beallsville had 13 first downs in the game to Paden City’s 10; the Devils achieved 187 ground yards on 34 rushes and 104 passing yards for a total of 291 yards in the game; Paden City achieved 147 rushing yards on 35 carries and 21 passing yards for a total of 168 positive yards.

Still earned 130 yards on 24 carries for the night, and two touchdowns. Geoffrey Bidwell gained 15 yards on eight carries.

Quarterback Zach Heasley completed two of seven passes for 13 yards; Bidwell completed one of six passes for eight yards and was intercepted three times. Peyton Hinkley caught three passes for 21 yards.

Defensively, Jay Billiter led the team with 10 tackles, and had one fumble recovery; Kyle Staton had seven tackles; Trey Leonard, six tackles; and Keith Hardbarger was credited with five tackles.

The Green will play host to Valley on Friday in a rivalry battle of Wetzel County. The Lumberjacks come into the game with a 3-6 record.

Silver Knights

Hoping to get control of their season with a win on Friday at Ritchie County, the Silver Knights of Tyler Consolidated had their hopes dashed as the Rebels took the game, 40-12 with little fanfare.

Ritchie struck pay-dirt first on a Reno Jackson four yard run with 8:15 to play in the first quarter. By half-time, the home team had racked up 20 points while holding the Silver scoreless. In the third, Ritchie dominated again with 13 more points.

Consolidated battled on, eventually tacking two touchdowns onto their side of the scoreboard to avoid the shut-out. Alex Doak brought a 25 yard pass down from quarterback Hunter LeMasters for the first Knight TD of the contest. Within minutes, the Silver struck gold again as senior Evan Cline ran one yard in for six points to put the score at the final, 40-12.

“This was one of the better teams Ritchie County has had in several years,” said Knight head coach Rob Caldwell. “Coach Mike Dawson is doing a good job with them. Again, we just continue to make to many mistakes that we can’t recover from. We’ve got to keep working until we get it right.”

“We’re not packing it in, we’re still going to practice as hard this week as we do any other week. We’d like to be able to send our four seniors out on an up-note.”

The Knights had 37 rushes for 48 yards; completed four of 13 passes for 49 yards and a total of 97 yards in the game. Ritchie County had 46 rushes for 280 ground yards; 74 passing yards for a total of 354.

Offensively for the Silver, sophomore Jacob Highley gained 31 yards on 14 rushes and a touchdown; Hunter LeMasters gained 18 yards on seven rushes; Evan Cline carried the ball six times for eight yards and a touchdown; Skyler Leasure rushed six times for 17 yards.

Quarterback Hunter LeMasters completed five of 12 passes in the game for 47 yards. Alex Doak had two catches for 37 yards; Highley caught two passes for 10; and Swen Scheidemantel caught one pass.

Defensively, Cline led the Consolidated team with five solo tackles, six assists and had one interception; Dakota Brennaman had three solo tackles, three assists and sacked the quarterback once; Scheidemantel, three solo tackles, seven assists; LeMasters, two solo’s, two assist; Highley, two solos, six assists; Skyler Leasure, one solo, one assist; Drew Casey, one solo tackle, four assists; Troy Watson, one solo; Koty Martin, three assists; Alex Doak, five assists, one special teams assist and one interception; J.P. Flesher, one assist, one quarterback sack; Josh Ruble, three assists; Cecil Spencer, one assist; and Slade Dillon, five assists.

The Silver Knights will board the bus for Clay County on Friday to take on the Panthers. “It is a long trip,” Caldwell said. “But we’re going with intentions to play hard and win.”