Late stop seals Cashion victory

Cashion’s defense - and an untimely penalty for Watonga - preserved the Wildcats their second win of the season.

A fourth-and-goal play in the final seconds was stuffed by Cashion as it escaped Watonga with a 1913 victory on Friday.

The Eagles had picked off an Ethan Waswo pass with 5:01 to play and drove it inside the Cashion 10 yard line.

It appeared the Eagles tied the game - with the extra-point pending - on third-and-goal from the 4, but a holding penalty negated the score.

Two plays later, Cashion was celebrating the late stop as it improved to 2-4 overall and 1-1 in District A-3 games. Watonga, meanwhile, dropped to 0-7 and 0-3.

“Our defense came up big several times,” said head coach Lynn Shackelford. “That was a huge factor in us winning.”

Not only did it come up big, but the defense also scored.

Max Higdon picked off a Talen Smith pass and took it 67 yards for a touchdown to give Cashion a 13-0 lead in the second quarter.

It was Higdon’s second interception of the game, but Cashion wasn’t done with them.

Kellen Smith grabbed the Wildcats’ third interception of the game late in the second quarter.

That set up a scoring drive that saw Timmy Jones find the end zone from a yard out on the last play of the half.

Jones had been denied from the 1 a play earlier, but Waswo got the offense set quickly and the Wildcats were able to get the final snap off before the clock ran out.

“That was a big sequence for us,” Shackelford said. “It turned out we really needed those points.”

That score put Cashion up 19-7.

It was Jones’ second TD as he ran it in from 3 yards out at 3:02 of the first quarter.

His second TD was part of a drive that saw Waswo find a streaking Higdon for a 34-yard pass down to the 6.

Cashion had Watonga pinned deep with about 4:00 left in the third quarter, but Tristan Dobbins got through the line, spun out of a tackle and then outraced Cashion to the end zone for a 93-yard scoring run.

A missed extra point kept the Watonga deficit at 19-13.

Cashion was able to milk valuable minutes off the clock late in the fourth, but Watonga was able to get its interception at the Wildcat 42.

After a timeout with just seconds remaining, the Eagles didn’t march out Smith at QB for the fourth-and-goal play. Instead, it was Kannon Kearney, who appeared to be looking for a jump pass.

However, Cashion had all passing lanes blocked off and Kearney was dropped at the line of scrimmage.

A big part of those late stops was senior lineman Tommy Branson, who joined Kaleb Duran in leading the team with seven tackles.

Jones, Drew Westerhoff and Higdon added five apiece.

Jones and Higdon were also big on offense.

Higdon hauled in four total passes for 86 yards, accounting for most of Waswo’s 108 passing yards.

Jones carried it 19 times for 101 yards. Waswo added another 25 yards as Cashion rushed for 169 total.

Watonga’s 288 total yards was 11 more than Cashion. The Eagles did most of their damage on the ground with 226 yards rushing. Dobbins ran for 163 of those on 13 attempts.