Wildcats dealt rare district defeat in visit to Minco

It’s been nearly five full years and more than two dozen games since Cashion last lost a district football contest. That streak was put to an end Friday night. Minco ran for more than 200 yards and kept the Wildcats out of the end zone until the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs grabbed a 27-8 home win.

It halted Cashion’s 26game district win streak. Its last loss was Week 6 of the 2017 season when Crescent beat the Wildcats 54-14 en route to reaching the Class A state title game. Cashion has won the last two Class A state titles, but now sits 0-1 in District A-3 games. “I thought, for the most part, our defense kept us in the game,” said Cashion coach Lynn Shackelford, whose team’s overall record fell to 1-3.

“We just weren’t very good on offense. We have to get a lot better if we’re going to make the playoffs.”

Minco held Cashion to just 36 rushing yards and forced three turnovers.

The Bulldogs were up 14-0 at halftime and led 20-0 entering the fourth quarter. “We missed some scoring opportunities in the first half and those would have kept us right in it,” Shackelford said. “And we blew some coverages to give them some easy scoring chances.”

Jake Carruth gave the home team a 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 29-yard run.

Reed McMurtrey made it 14-0 in the second quarter with his 3-yard score.

Hunter Mulanax scored on a 6-yard reception from McMurtrey in the third quarter for the three-score lead.

Cashion finally broke through in the fourth when Camden Maroney pushed it in from a yard out.

Max Brown caught a two-point conversion pass from Chance Acord to make it a 20-8 game.

However, Minco put together a final scoring drive to ice it.

The Bulldogs averaged 4.6 yards on their 45 rushing attempts.

Cashion managed just 1.2 yards per carry.

Nathan Nabavi ran for 44 yards, but the rest of the team had negative net yards.

Acord threw for 176 yards, but was also picked off twice.

“We just never could find any rhythm,” Shackelford said.

Brown caught nine passes for 42 yards. Nabavi’s five catches also netted 42 yards.

Seth Gilbert led the team with 67 receiving yards on four catches.

Cashion hosts Western Heights on Friday for homecoming. It’s a non-district game for the teams.