Velma-Alma knocks off Cashion
Wildcats suffer another knee injury; Comets 2nd half run game too strong
MAXX HIGDON hauled in nine passes for 111 yards, but Cashion couldn’t slow down Velma- Alma’s run game in a 28-20 defeat at home last Friday night. [Photo by Chris Simon/www. simon-sports-photos.smugmug.com]
Another early knee injury and Velma-Alma’s bruising ground game late in the game led to Cashion’s first loss of the season.
Comet quarterback Slade Strickland scored on a 33-yard run with 1:13 to play to lift the visitors to a 28-20 victory over Cashion.
The game was Velma- Alma’s first in 11-man after spending the last several years in the eightman ranks.
Strickland’s game-winning run came just over two minutes after Cashion’s Kellen Smith tied the game with a 2-yard touchdown scramble and two-point conversion run.
However, Cashion couldn’t get the stop it needed on Velma-Alma’s ensuing drive.
It started with a 22-yard run by the Comets, who continued to march down the field.
Strickland’s game-winning run came on a 3rdand- 3 play and was Velma- Alma’s second long TD run of the quarter.
The first was a 37-yard scamper by Talon Quick with 5:07 to play to put the Comets up 20-12.
Velma-Alma ran for 276 yards on the night.
Quick ran 28 times for 176 yards while Strickland carried it 11 times for 96.
The Comets averaged 6.6 yards per carry.
Cashion’s offense took its second hit in as many weeks when running back Drew Westerhoff went down with a knee injury in the first quarter and didn’t return.
The Wildcats only managed 79 rushing yards on 25 carries, but did hurt the Comets through the air.
Smith was 26 of 42 for 247 yards.
That included an 8-yard TD pass to Maxx Higdon in the first quarter, giving Cashion a 6-0 lead.
The Wildcats were able to keep the Comets out of the end zone in the first half, but the visitors struck twice in the third quarter.
Quick scored on a 35yard run and Easton Beck on a 4-yard carry as Velma- Alma took a 14-6 lead into the fourth quarter.
Cashion pulled within 14-12 when Smith ran in a 13-yard run with 8:10 to play.
The touchdown was set up by a 29-yard pass to Higdon down to the Comet 15.
However, Cashion couldn’t convert the twopoint conversion and remained trailing.
Velma-Alma completed two big third-down plays on the drive to answer and went up 20-12 with Quick’s TD run with 5:07 left.
After Velma-Alma took its final lead, Cashion began a drive at its own 33 with 1:13 left, but couldn’t pick up a first down.
The loss dropped Cashion to 1-1.
“There were several things that hurt us,” coach Lynn Shackelford said.
“Obviously Drew’s injury is something we had to overcome.”
In Cashion’s Week 0 win at Hennessey, starting quarterback Ethan Waswo injured his knee.
“But there were other things that hurt us as well,” Shackelford continued. “We had some turnovers, we didn’t execute in the first half on offense and then we couldn’t stop their run in the second half.”
In addition to his pass yards, Smith led the team with 46 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Higdon caught nine passes for 111 yards while Greyson Davis hauled in eight for 71 yards. Rival Fields caught five passes for 43 yards.
Timmy Jones led Cashion’s defense with 11 stops. Kaleb Duran added seven tackles.