‘Cats fall to Bishops, 48-6
The Paden City Wildcats met up with a tough opponent in the Bishops of Bishop Donahue on Friday night at John Marshall’s stadium as the Bishops overpowered the ‘Cats to take the 48 – 6 win.
“They have a good group of athletes and we just weren’t able to match up with them on Friday,” said Wildcat head coach, Brent Croasmun. “They have an excellent back in Lavante Hampton and we just couldn’t stop him.”
In the opening minutes of the game Paden City was able to stop the Bishops initial drive down the field at the five yard line. The ‘Cats took over on the four set to begin their own drive, but quarterback Zach Heasley was sacked in the endzone for a safety.
Bishop Donahue scored two touchdowns in the first quarter and three in the second to take a demanding 35-0 lead in the game. In the second half the Bishops tacked on six more in the third and in the fourth, Paden City finally found paydirt by way of a 28 yard pass from Heasley to Brandon Cross for six points. The home team scored once again before the buzzer sounded to end the game, giving Bishop Donahue the win, 48-6.
“Their quarterback was good and his offense line gave him all the protection he needed,” coach Croasmun said. “We couldn’t get to him.”
“Our running game stalled early on, but Zach did a good job connecting on his passes. We made some mistakes that hurt us, but that takes nothing away from their team. They were good.”
Offensively, Heasley completed 14 of 31 passes on the night for 136 passing yards. He was intercepted three times and threw one touchdown pass.
Deven Price caught three Heasley passes for 20 yards in the game. Cross had eight catches for 96 yards and the touchdown; Hayden Hizer caught two passes for 17 yards; and Luke Cooper had a catch for three yards.
Cross was the leading rusher for the ‘Cats, gaining 28 yards on the ground on three carries. Kane Pyles rushed five times to gain 23 yards.
Junior Spencer Billings again led the Wildcat defense with 10 tackles and a fumble cause; Cooper also had ten tackles; Pyles, seven tackles; Cross was credited with six tackles, a fumble recovery and a fumble cause; Hizer had six tackles; Dakota Gatian, five tackles; and Craig Allen had four tackles and recovered a fumble.
The ‘Cats have an open date on Friday and will see action again on Nov. 1 when they travel to South Harrison.