Wildcat football runs out of bodies to compete with Titans

Mount Vernon’s Saint Henderson is surrounded by the enemy as he tries to pick up a few extra yards on Friday night at Gibson Southern. Photo by Dave Pearce

By Dave Pearce

If you are a Mount Vernon Wildcat fan and you stayed at home on Friday night because you thought the Wildcats were overmatched, shame on you. The Wildcats are small in number but were big on effort during the 59-19 loss to the Titans. But sometimes the scoreboard just doesn’t begin to tell the story. This was the case Friday night at Ft. Branch.

The Wildcats kicked off to the Titans and the state’s second-ranked Class 3A team can be explosive. They moved the ball up the field and scored on their first possession. That was expected. But what wasn’t expected was when the Cats answered back just a minute later when Ryan Lilleston got loose and no one could catch him as he scored on a to bring the Cats to within 7-6. The extra point was missed.

But the Titans will never stay down for long and on their next possession, they drove with authority down the field until they met a stiffened and improved Wildcat defense. The Cats held the Tians out of the end zone and the home team settled for field goal to give the Titans a 10-6 lead.

Despite giving up 38 first-half points, the Wildcats proved that had they had better numbers out, the team could have been an even greater threat as they scored three times through the air in the half and trailed 38-19 at the half. Ryan Lilleston got loose for three scores and caught nine passes for 212 yards on the night. He was a threat all night against the Titans. They just had too many fresh players to run in and out and the Wildcats continue to play several players both ways. That’s a tough assignment on a night when the temperature was still in the 90s at the 8 p.m. gametime.

“We played a really good football game, especially in the first half,” said Mount Vernon first-year Coach Brad Higginson. The improvement was obvious from the opening game and from last week’s 40-0 loss to Boonville. “You take a team like Gibson Southern and you switch the momentum and the whole first quarter we were in the ballgame. “

Higginson was obviously proud of his team’s effort early on, moving the ball against such a talented team.

“We gave them problems but just from an overall standpoint, trying to keep everybody healthy,” he said. “The difference in the ballgame, to be honest, was that their confidence changed in the second half and ours got tired. We have to do a better job of conditioning and staying in condition. We have to make sure we are ready to go for next Friday night.

The Gibson Southern crowd appeared stunned as the Wildcats, who had scored on 15 points total in two game, put 19 first-half points on the board. But equally surprising was how well the Wildcats played in the half, showing their fans they are working hard and they are improving.

Although failing to make excuses for the loss, Higginson pointed out the obvious.

“They have 22 starters and we have about 13,” he said. “But that’s OK. We are building a program here that’s built on toughness and I think our kids played hard till the final whistle. Was it perfect? No, But our guys are playing hard and continuing to play harder each week. We are eliminating mistakes and we are making some big plays and in general learning how to play the game of football.”

Despite being unable to capitalize on scoring chances in the second half, the Wildcats continued to be pesky and to be a nuisance to the Titans all evening with their swarming defense and their determination to show their improvement.

“We made some big plays on both offense and defense and we just have to learn how to build off of those,” Higginson said.

Mount Vernon quarterback Johnathon Crowe had a better-than-average night hitting over half his passes (13 of 24) for 235 yards on the night. Lilleston was the recipient of nine of those catches, using his speed and body control create a little space and then come down with the catch.

The Wildcats were unable to get anything going on the ground as Saint Henderson led the team with 62 yards on 11 carries. Eastin Hall was able to manage only 27 yards on 13 carries as the defense obviously keyed on the strong and hard-running senior. Hunter Anslinger had five yards on a couple of carries. The Wildcats finished with 328 total yards.

The Titans dominated the offensive stats rolling up 564 yards of offense but many of those yards came after the out-manned Wildcats had given everything they hard and there was very little left in the tank in the final quarter-and-a-half. It’s too bad they don’t keep state for effort because the Wildcats would certainly have held their own there.

Defensively, the Wildcats were led by Hall who had eight tackles and two assists. Brycen Riggan, in his first game back from an injury, finished with five solo tackles and a pair of assists. Henderson had three solo and five assist tackles. Maddex Salee finished with six solo tackles while teammate Cael Collins had five. Was Biggerstaff, Gavin Schu, Lilleston, Houchin, Biggerstaff, and Greathouse finished with three tackles apiece while Bell and Stillwagoner had two apiece. Kissel, Bishop, Boyd, and York all finished with a single tackle.

On Friday night, the Wildcats will travel to Reo to face a South Spencer squad in a similar position, working on building their program back into a stiff competitor. Both teams currently stand at 0-3 as the Rebels dropped their opener to Heritage Hills (49-13) and the dropped a 26-20 heart-breaker to Eminence. They fell to a much-improved Tecumseh team 48-18 on Friday night. Gametime at Reo is 7 p.m.