On Friday night at John Marshall’s Monarch Field, the Wildcats of Paden City fell hard on muddy ground to the Bishops of Bishop Donahue High School, 41-0.

On a rain soaked field in Marshall County, the 3-3 Paden City Wildcats had their work cut out for them as they went up against the 3-2 Bishops, but field conditions, a few miscues and a good defense by the Green and Gold all assisted in handing the ‘Cats their fourth loss of the season.

“It was impossible for us to do anything on that field,” said Wildcat head coach Brent Croasmun. “They did a real good job moving the ball, and we just couldn’t do it.”

The ‘Cats and Bishops played to a standstill in the first quarter, heading to the second stanza knotted at zero. But within minutes of the opening of the second quarter, Bishop quarterback Jordan Angalich connected with Jordan Burress on a 57 yard pass for the first touchdown of the game.

Donahue would go on to score 28 points in the second quarter and added 13 more in the third to take the win.

“The difference in the game was the second quarter,” Croasmun said. “If we could have done something there we might have been okay, but we just couldn’t. Our kids tried, but we had a couple of mistakes and Bishop Donahue capitalized on them and that was that.”

The deplorable weather caused both teams worries when it came to holding onto the football, as Paden City fumbled seven times in the game, losing two, and Donahue had six fumbles.

Statistics for the game include Donahue rushing 44 times for 236 yards while Paden City rushed for 100 yards on 32 carries. Paden City acquired five first downs in the contest; Bishop Donahue had 14. The Wildcats were penalized four times for 30 yards; the Bishops lost 40 yards on four penalties.

Tyler Still was the leading rusher for the Green and White, carrying the ball 11 times for 48 yards. Malakai Anderson had 40 yards on 18 carries.

Anderson, Paden City’s quarterback, completed three of eight passes and was intercepted twice. Still caught all three passes.

Defensively, it was Still leading the way for the Paden City team with 13 tackles.

Keith Hardbarger had 10 tackles, one for a loss; and Anderson had six tackles, two for a loss and a quarterback sack.

Wildcat fans traveling to support their team against Bellaire St. Johns on Friday are reminded that the game will be played on Bridgeport, Ohio’s football field as St. Johns new facility is still being constructed.

Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.