Playoffs in doubt with Cashion loss

Playoff hopes in Cashion took a massive blow in Week 7.

Visiting Christian Heritage Academy scored the game’s final 14 points to pull away for a 34-18 victory on Thursday night.

The win was the Crusaders’ first in District A-3 contests, bumping their record to 1-3.

Cashion, meanwhile, fell to 1-2 in the district with games remaining against Hinton and Crescent (who had a combined one loss coming into Week 7).

Outside of beating Hinton, the Wildcats’ best hope to reach the playoffs is for winless Watonga to knock off CHA in Week 8.

Cashion could have been the team in the driver’s seat and tried to keep pace with its visitors, but couldn’t sustain it.

The teams traded touchdowns through more than three quarters.

It was always CHA scoring first as the Crusaders got a 28-yard touchdown run from Caleb Gideon in the first quarter.

Ethan Waswo capped a Cashion scoring drive, but the extra-point was no good. A 7-6 game after a quarter remained there at halftime.

Gideon scored again in the third, this time with an 8-yard run to put his team up 13-6.

Cashion again answered as Waswo connected with Maxx Higdon for a 54-yard touchdown.

A failed conversion had Cashion trailing 13-12.

Gideon’s 1-yard TD run pushed the deficit for Cashion back to 20-12 in the third quarter.

Waswo made it 20-18 early in the fourth with his second TD run, this one from 12 yards.

However, the two-point conversion was no good as Cashion fell short of tying it up.

CHA made sure it didn’t happen.

The Crusaders scored on two big fourth-quarter plays to ice the win and move to 3-5 overall.

Cashion is now 2-5. The visitors won despite being out-gained 279-234.

Waswo threw for 143 yards as he connected on 11 of 36 attempts. He was picked off twice.

The Wildcats added 136 rushing yards.

Drew Westerhoff led the team with 49 yards on 12 carries. Waswo added 43 on 16 attempts.

Higdon’s big TD catch was part of a bigger day.

In all, he caught six passes for 112 yards.

Kaleb Duran led the team with 11 tackles.

Cashion travels to Woodward on Thursday for a non-district game.

If Watonga can knock off CHA this week and if those teams and Cashion end up with the same district record, it will cause a three-way tie for the final playoff spot.

If that’s the case, district points will come into play to determine the playoff entrant.