‘Cats clear path to semifinal

Cashion used a balancing act to get back into the state semifinals.

The Wildcats ran and threw it effectively last Friday in taking apart Woodland 41-22 in a Class A quarterfinal at Maxon Field.

Cashion scored the game’s first 41 points to advance to at least the semifinal round for the second straight year.

Caden Harrell ran for 201 yards and a pair of TDs while Ben Harman threw for 253 yards and four more scores.

“We feel if a team is trying to take something away from us, we can be really good at the other,” Cashion coach Lynn Shackelford said. “And there are times when they try to play us straight up and we can be effective both ways.”

That’s what Cashion was against the Cougars.

The Wildcats ran it 35 times for 281 yards overall.

Harrell got 17 of those carries and scored on runs of 7 yards in the first quarter and 5 yards in the second.

The latter TD gave the Wildcats a 34-0 halftime lead against a Woodland team that entered the night with a 12-1 record.

Harman chipped in another 42 yards on just five carries while Brexten Green’s five totes garnered him 47 yards.

That helped set up the passing game and a huge night for Landon LaGasse.

The wideout had six catches for 145 yards. He caught three of Harman’s TD passes.

All three came in the first half and covered 5, 16 and 96 yards.

Harman added a 45-yard scoring pass to Max Brown in the third quarter.

He was 12 of 26 overall.

Cashion’s first unit didn’t give up a touchdown.

“We did a really good job of getting off the field and giving our offense the ball back,” Shackelford said.

Although the groundheavy Cougars did run for 216 yards, they had just 8 yards passing.

Cashion picked off two of their five pass attempts.

Harrellled the team with 11 tackles.

Justice Broadbent added nine while Green had eight.

Overall, Cashion racked up 310 more yards of offense than the Cougars.

Cashion enters this week’s semifinal with a 14-0 record.