By Ethan Verst
The Pendleton County Wildcats took on the Dayton Green Devils in a thriller on August 30. The Wildcats would come away with a huge win, getting Coach Graham his first of his career. This was a big win as they would improve to 1-1 on the year.
The Wildcats would drive down the field and get on the board with a touchdown on their first drive. Thanks to numerous connections from Elijah Barhorst to Wayne Grant. Before Joey Butke would catch a 15-yard touchdown reception from Barhorst to make it a 7-0 Wildcats lead. Dayton would answer back, driving down the field with a score of their own making it 7-6, after a failed 2-point conversion.
Dayton would come up with a stop to start the 2nd quarter and then connect on a 60-yard passing touchdown to go ahead 12-7. Dayton would then force the Wildcats to turn it over on downs. Then Copper Clark would come up with a huge play for the Wildcats recovering a fumble and taking it for a 55-yard return giving the Wildcats the ball at 2-yard line. Where Jackson Hannah would get the call and finish the job for the Wildcats to regain the lead 13-12.
It wouldn’t last long though, as Dayton would immediately bounce back scoring in two plays to go ahead 19-13 at the end of the first half.
To start the 3rd quarter the Wildcats would force another fumble, giving themselves great field position. Elijah Barhorst would find Wayne Grant from there for a 20-yard passing touchdown to take a 20-19 lead. Yet again, Dayton would respond with a touchdown of their own on a quarterback sneak to go ahead 26-20.
The Wildcats would shake that off though, as Elijah Barhorst would connect with Joey Butke for a 62-yard passing touchdown to go ahead 27-26 at the start of the 4th quarter. Pendleton County would come up with consecutive stops from there to close it out a with pass batted away by Gavin Laney and an interception from Colton Morton. The Wildcats would hang on and pick up their first win under first year head coach Jaeggar Graham to improve to 1-1 on the year.
When talking to Coach Graham, he had this to say, “We preached all week along about staying together and playing together. Playing as a team and earning everything we get. That’s what they did, and that was amazing thing to see.”
The Wildcats then would travel to Bellevue on September 6 to take on the Tigers in a matchup where they would look to improve to a winning record. They would go down 8-0 early as Bellevue drove down and scored on their first drive. Pendleton would put together a much-needed drive and Drew Metzner would get the call on a reverse, punching it in for the Wildcats to go down 8-6 after their failed 2-point conversion. Bellevue would answer immediately with another touchdown to make it 16-6 at halftime. From there, the Tigers would just prove to be too much for the Wildcats to handle as they would go onto win the game 36-6. The Wildcats would fall to 1-2 on the year as they look to bounce back September 14 at 4 p.m. as they take on Gallatin County at Owen County High School.