Run game leads Cashion to 38-30 victory over Thomas

The offensive part of Cashion’s football attack started to find some footing last week.

The Wildcats had nearly 400 total yards as they held off Thomas in a 38-30 shootout at home.

Cashion (1-2) not only got its first win of the season, but the Wildcats scored multiple times in a game for the first time this year. They had just six total points entering the night.

They matched that in the first quarter when quarterback Ethan Waswo scored on a 6-yard run.

It was a sign of things to come.

Waswo had three of Cashion’s five rushing TDs on the night.

The ground attack was fruitful as the Wildcats turned 52 rush attempts into 283 yards, an average of 5.4 a carry.

“We were especially good running it in the second half,” coach Lynn Shackelford said. “I thought we wore them down and were really consistent in getting chunk plays in the run game.”

Four different Wildcats had at least 57 rushing yards and five of them had 25 or more.

Waswo led the way with 85 yards on 15 carries.

He added rushing TDs of 6 and 13 yards in the second quarter as Cashion staked a 19-16 halftime lead.

Greyson Davis ran for 81 yards on eight attempts while Timmy Jones and Kaleb Duran added 60 and 57 yards, respectively.

After Thomas was able to take a 23-19 lead in the fourth quarter, Cashion outscored the Terriers 19-7 the rest of the way.

Two of those scored were rushing touchdowns as Jones answered Thomas’ go-ahead TD with a 19-yard scoring run.

Thomas answered with another score, but Cashion notched 13 straight points.

Greyson Davis caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Waswo and then Duran added a 3-yard TD run for a 38-23 advantage.

Waswo added 106 passing yards to his night.

“We were a lot more consistent with it this week,” said Shackelford of the passing game.

Westerhoff led the receivers with five catches for 63 yards.

Duran led the defense with nine tackles.

Westerhoff, Benson Altman and Waswo added six apiece.

“We were good against the run and I think we’re getting better in the secondary,” Shackelford said.

Cashion had Thomas to just 84 rushing yards on 27 attempts.

However, Thomas QB Tye Littlebird was able to throw for 230 yards and three TDs as the Terriers refused to go away.

“They made some really good plays, but we were in position,” Shackelford said.

And “in position” wasn’t something associated with Cashion in the first two weeks as it was outscored by a combined 107 points.

“We still have a long way to go,” Shackelford said. “But I think we’re getting better each week.”