TOUGH MUDDERS

Head coach Lynn Shackelford wanted his football team to impose its will on Barnsdall last week.

The Wildcats did that for the most part and Mother Nature took care of the rest as Cashion advanced to the Class A semifinals with a 28-6 victory on the road.

“We were pretty good in the first half,” Shackelford said. “In the second half… we were just trying to get out of there.”

Like much of the northern part of the state, the game was played in the cold…and the rain.

Barnsdall’s field was turned to mush after hours of precipitation.

“The field was in terrible shape,” Shackelford said.

The game conjured memories of Cashion’s home quarterfinal with Hollis in 2015. That, too, was played on a mud-soaked fi eld with temperatures well below freezing.

“The field was similar in this game,” Shackelford said. “But it wasn’t nearly as cold.”

What was cold was the Cashion defense.

That Wildcats unit didn’t surrender a point. Barnsdall’s lone touchdown was a fumble recovery returned in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers averaged 35.2 points a game, but had just 169 yards of total offense.

Quarterback Joe Cole was held to 87 yards on 9-of-24 passing and was picked off twice.

That was more than enough for the Cashion offense.

T.J. Roberts found the end zone three times in the first half as Cashion built up a 20-0 lead.

Roberts scored from 8 yards out in the fi rst quarter then added TDs of 4 and 7 yards in the second.

He finished with 64 yards on 13 carries.

Cashion’s run game produced 218 yards on 45 attempts.

Quarterback Ben Harman ran for another 74 yards and Alex Nabavi 47.

The balanced run game didn’t have Caden Harrell.

The junior injured his ankle the week before and was limited to defense.

“He was maybe at 70 percent, so we limited him to defense. The conditions didn’t help,” Shackelford said.

“He’s getting better. Hopefully he’ll be close to 100 percent this week.”

The Wildcats added a 35-yard touchdown pass from Harman to Nabavi in the third quarter.

Harman threw for 96 yards as he completed fi ve of his nine attempts. Nabavi caught two passes for 56 yards and Brexten Green two for another 34 yards.

Defensively, linebacker Bryce Miller had 13 tackles.

Justice Broadbent added seven and had one of the interceptions. Gavin Phippen provided the other.

Jacob Farrow delivered seven tackles as well.

The smothering defense and an offense able to grind it out in tough conditions gave Shackelford confidence entering the game.

“Even though we won that game with Hollis in 2015, I wasn’t so sure about it going in,” Shackelford said. “But I thought that with the makeup of this team, the conditions favored us way more than them Friday night.”

Barnsdall’s season ends with a 9-4 record. The Panthers had won four straight entering the night.

That 2015 win over Hollis helped propel the Wildcats into the state title game for the second year in a row.

This is the first trip to the semifinals for Cashion since.

Cashion, now 12-0, plays Pawnee at 7 p.m. Friday in Cushing.