Cashion Bolton to the quarters

Challenge accepted.

Cashion held up in the battle of the trenches - then began to dominate there - and the Wildcats are moving into the second round because of it.

Jayden Bolton ran for five touchdowns - including four straight during a dominant stretch in the second half - as Cashion upset fourth-ranked Walters 42-14 on the road in the first round of the Class A-I playoffs.

The win advances the Wildcats to the quarterfinal round. They’ll travel to Pawnee, a 30-7 victor over Panama, this Friday night.

Walters entered the playoffs with a sparkling 9-1 record and averaging 36.9 points a game.

However, the Blue Devils were held scoreless in the first half.

“I thought our kids accepted the challenge on defense to play physical,” said coach Lynn Shackelford.

Cashion, meanwhile, was working to establish the ground game. The visitors led 7-0 at the break on the strength of Bolton’s 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

The Blue Devils tied up the game in the third quarter as Carson Jones scored on a 9-yard run.

But that’s when Cashion began to dominate.

More specifically?

“Our offensive line took over in the second half,” Shackelford said.

In one formation or another, linemen and tight ends Kaleb Duran, Juan Melendez, Caden Seely, Matthew Stockton, Timmy Jones, Max Hoesli, Ethan Waswo, Gavin Layton and Slade Williams began to have their way with the Blue Devils.

The beneficiaries largely were Kellen Smith and Bolton.

Smith put Cashion back on top with a 29-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

That led to the Bolton show.

He made it 21-7 before the end of the third with a 45-yard TD run.

In the fourth, Bolton scored on runs of 5, 32 and 10 yards as Cashion took a 42-7 lead.

The Blue Devils never had an answer. All told, Cashion ran it 45 times for 381 yards, an average of 8.5 a carry.

Bolton had 12 carries and turned them into 201 yards. He averaged 16.8 yards a touch.

Smith added 120 yards and averaged 9.2 yards on his 13 carries.

Rival Fields grabbed 16 handoffs and turned them into 69 yards.

Cashion attempted only 10 passes in the game.

As the offense got going, the defense continued to get stops.

Jones led the team with 10 tackles, seven of them solo.

Duran was in on nine stops and Layton seven.

“I thought it was a solid all-around effort,” Shackelford said. “Walters is a good football team and our guys went down there and took care of business.”

Cashion enters the second round with an 8-3 record.

Pawnee is 8-3 and ranked fifth in the class. The Black Bears have won eight straight since opening the season with three straight losses to Woodland, Stroud and Hominy.

Only once during the win streak has Pawnee given up more than one score with that being a 62-16 win against Pawhuska in Week 5.

During the win streak, Pawnee is beating foes an average of 50-5 and has three shutouts.