The Bucs stop with Cashion

The two frontrunners for the District A-3 championship had the same defensive game plan when they met last week: Stop the run.

There’s only one problem when teams do that against Cashion and that’s the Wildcats’ lethal passing attack.

Quarterback Ben Harman and wideout Brexten Green delivered monster performances Saturday as Cashion dominated Tonkawa 42-0 at Edmond Santa Fe High School.

The game was originally slated for Friday in Cashion, but last week’s winter storm had the town still without power.

Whether on their home grass or on Santa Fe’s turf, the Wildcats have proven able to move the ball, no matter what the defense tries to do.

“They loaded the box against us and had man coverage on the outside,” said Cashion coach Lynn Shackelford about Tonkawa’s defensive strategy.

So instead of going the more methodical route and wearing down the Bucs with Caden Harrell, the Wildcats went to the air.

The result was 373 yards and five touchdowns passing for Harman.

While his targets were plentiful, his most productive one was Green.

The senior hauled in 12 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns.

All three came in the first half as Cashion built a 28-0 lead.

They covered 47, 41 and 22 yards.

Harman, who completed 24 of 34 attempts, also threw a 10-yard touchdown to Mason Manning and a 1-yard strike to Landon LaGasse in the second half.

Manning caught seven passes for 65 yards and LaGasse four for 39.

“We really could have thrown it even more,” Shackelford said.

But the Wildcats do still have Harrell.

He ran it 15 times for 79 yards, which included a 14-yard TD run for Cashion’s first score of the game.

He also got his share of carries as Cashion ran the final 7:31 off the clock.

Meanwhile, the defense pitched its third shutout of the season.

The Bucs feature their own battering ram in running back Tristen Burdick.

“He’s a tough, strong, hard runner,” said Wildcat defensive coordinator Tony Wood.

So the Cashion defense used mostly four- and fiveman fronts to attempt to limit his effectiveness.

While Burdick did net 116 yards on 27 carries, the Bucs did little outside of that.

The rest of Tonkawa’s team lost nine yards on 12 other carries and the Bucs had 25 passing yards and were picked off twice.

The team’s best chance to score came after Burdick picked off a Harman pass on Cashion’s first possession of the second half.

His 37-yard return set up the Bucs at the Cashion 15 and they eventually had 1stand-goal from the 4.

However, three straight run plays lost yardage and Cashion ended the drive by forcing an incompletion on fourth down.

Justice Broadbent and Harrell had nine tackles apiece for a defense that hasn’t given up more than 14 points eight of its nine games.

Kyler George added eight tackles as the defense forced three turnovers overall and had nine tackles for a loss.

Cashion is now 9-0 entering this week’s War on 74 showdown with Crescent.

The win over Tonkawa made Cashion the only District A-3 without a loss.

Crescent’s lone district defeat was a 21-20 setback to Tonkawa earlier this season.