Cashion streaks past Comets to secure playoff bid

A dominant second half has secured Cashion’s playoff spot.

The Wildcats outscored Hinton 28-3 over the final two quarters to garner a 34-13 “Senior Night” home victory.

Cashion is now 7-2 overall and 5-1 in District A-I-1 and visits Fairview in the final week of the regular season.

A win will give Cashion a second-place finish in the district and a home playoff game. A loss means no worse than third place for the Wildcats.

Hinton gave Cashion all it wanted through three quarters as the teams were tied 13-13.

The Comets turned over Cashion twice and got a pair of Deuce Tripp field goals on top of a Brayden Deviney touchdown run to stay in contention.

But that ended in the fourth quarter.

“We stopped turning it over, our offensive line play improved and we started hitting some big plays,” said coach Lynn Shackelford.

The Wildcats took the lead for good when Rival Fields caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Kellen Smith.

Fields later added a 1-yard TD run and then Smith found Grayson Davis for a 66-yard strike to break the game open. Fields accounted for more than 160 yards of offense.

The sophomore ran 13 times for 112 yards and caught two passes for 49 yards to go with his two scores.

He was one of two Cashion backs to eclipse the century mark.

Jayden Bolton amassed 113 yards on just six carries.

Smith nearly made it three as he ran 13 times for 93 yards.

After Hinton took the 7-0 lead in the second quarter on Deviney’s run, Smith brought Cashion within 7-6 with a 19-yard scoring run.

Hinton led 10-6 at the break as Tripp kicked a 34yard field goal in the second quarter.

Bolton gave Cashion its first lead in the third quarter as he broke loose for a 75-yard TD run.

Tripp’s foot tied it with a 35-yard field goal, but the Comets didn’t score again.

Smithwas7of10through the air for 164 yards.

Cashion out-gained the Comets 474-241.

Ethan Waswo led the defense with 10 stops. Kaleb Duran was in on six tackles.

“I thought our defense was good the entire game,” said Shackelford. “Once our offense cleaned things up, they had a hard time stopping us.”

Fairview is the two-time defending state champion and enters the week with an 8-1 overall mark and 5-1 district record. The Yellowjackets’ lone loss was to Hooker, which wrapped up the district with its win last week.