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Chisago Lakes 27,

St. Louis Park 10

The Wildcats were clinging to a 13-10 lead as St. Louis Park drove toward the go-ahead touchdown midway through the fourth quarter Friday, September 5. But Jake Elzy came up with a huge play at the Wildcat 31 yard line, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Henry Fitzpatrick. Two minutes later, Andy Willhite's thrilling 40 yard touchdown run completed a 14-point swing. Not to be outdone, Zach Butcher ran for a 41 yard touchdown on the Wildcats' next play. Putting an exclamation point on the Wildcats' 27-10 win. The Wildcat "home" game was played at Irondale because the new Wildcat football stadium was not quite ready.

Defensive lineman Eric Sargeant played a phenomenal game for the Wildcats, getting in on six of the Wildcats' incredible 10 sacks. In addition, the Wildcats had 12 other tackles for losses.

The Wildcats tried an onside kick to open the game, but the Orioles recovered at the Wildcat 48 The wide-open Oriole offense drove quickly down the field, needing just four plays to get first and goal on the eight. The Wildcat defense came up with a huge sack on second down to push the Orioles back to the 13. On third down, Hynes ran for 10 yards to set up fourth and three.

The Orioles decided to go for it. Hynes dropped back to pass, but was swarmed by Fitzpatrick and Sargeant at the 10, ending the drive and turning the ball over to the Wildcats.

The Wildcats' first offensive play of the game was an eight yard pass from Willhite to Butcher. The Wildcats quickly moved down the field, with Willhite hitting Fitzpatrick for gains of 23 and 20 yards. But a fumble and Oriole recovery after the second reception stopped the drive at the Oriole 17. The Orioles went on a 17 play drive that ate up the last five minutes of the first quarter. Facing fourth and 8 from the Wildcat 18, the Orioles kicked a field goal on the first play of the second quarter to take a 3-0 lead.

The Wildcats answered with a quick scoring drive of their own. Butcher gained 10 yards to put the ball at first and 10 on the 30. The Wildcats ran the option right, and Willhite got around the corner. He raced down the field with Butcher trailing. About to be tackled after gaining 35 yards, Willhite pitched the ball to Butcher. Butcher ran another 9 yards before being pushed out of bounds at the 26. Gains of 8 yards by Butcher and 6 yards by Willhite gave the Wildcats first down at the 12. Willhite pitched right to Joey Reed, who ran the ball into the end zone to give the Wildcats a 6-3 lead.

On the extra point, a low snap rolled to Butcher, the holder. Butcher did a nice job to set the ball, the line held for an extra half second and kicker Dominic Novak had the presence of mind to wait till the ball was set, then knocked it through the uprights to make it 7-3.

The Wildcat defense held the Orioles to one first down in their next drive, forcing the Orioles into a punting situation from their own 45. The punter fielded the bad snap, but Chad Haider hit him and forced a fumble. Butcher recovered the ball, giving the Wildcats a first down at the Oriole 44.

The Wildcats went on a 10 play drive that ate up four minutes. Willhite, Butcher and Reed ran the ball down the field. Facing third and four from the 16, Reed worked hard for a 4 yard gain. They called for a measurement and the Wildcats had the first down by about a quarter inch. On second and goal from the 6, Butcher ran off tackle to the left and strolled into the end zone. Another bad snap scuttled the extra point attempt, leaving the Wildcat lead at 13-3 with just over a minute left in the half. The Orioles took the subsequent kickoff and got as far as the Wildcat 15 before the half ended.

After the Wildcats failed to move the ball on the opening drive of the second half, St. Louis Park took over at its own 46. The Orioles managed one first down. On the next set of downs, a sack by Fitzpatrick and Olson, another sack by Fitzpatrick, Eric Sargeant and Jake Elzy and a false start penalty made it third and 28 for the Orioles from their own 42. The Orioles fired a long pass down the middle. Butcher picked it off at the Wildcat 32 and ran it to the Wildcat 47 yard line.

The Wildcats gave the ball right back, fumbling on the next play. Starting from the 50, the Orioles again quickly drove down the field. The two biggest gains were a 23 yard pass and a 15 yard face mask penalty. On third and goal from the 11, Lepkea Korda ran the ball in for a touchdown. The extra point pulled St. Louis Park to within 13-10.

The teams traded punts, and then the Wildcats went on an 11 play drive. Facing third-and 25 from their own 40 with just over nine minutes remaining in the game and clinging to a three point lead, the Wildcats fumbled and the Orioles recovered at the Wildcat 44. On third and 8 from the 42, Oriole quarterback Greg Hynes ran for 17 yards and a first down at the 25. After a sack by Clay Olson on the next play, the Orioles faced second and 16 from the 31. Elzy blasted Hynes and Henry Fitzpatrick pounced on the ball to stop the Oriole drive.

The Wildcats ground out one first down. On first and 10 from their own 42, Zach Butcher ran up the middle, dragging at tackler for the last 10 yards to pick up a first down at the Oriole 40. On the next play, Willhite headed up the middle, Butcher sprung him with a nice block and Willhite turned on the afterburners, outracing the St. Louis Park defense to the end zone to put the Wildcats up 20-10 and take the starch out of the Orioles.

After the Wildcats scored to go ahead 20-10, Novak blasted the ensuing kickoff into the end zone for a touchback. Olson and Elzy came up with a sack on first down, and the Orioles ended up punting from the 16. The punt went just 25 yards into the wind, and the Wildcats took over at the SLP 36. After a 5 yard false start penalty, Butcher took the ball, plowed into the middle, broke a tackle, avoided an ankle tackle and ran all the way to the end zone to put the Wildcats ahead 27-10 with 3:50 left in the game.

St. Louis Park managed to create some excitement for their fans with a 36 yard runs on the next drive, but Sargeant tackled Hynes for a 7 yard loss on fourth and 7 at the Wildcat 26 and the Wildcats took over with less than two minutes remaining. A few plays later, the Wildcats celebrated their 27-10 victory over the Orioles.

"When we went started the fourth quarter, it was anybody's ball game," said Wildcat head coach Bill Weiss. "That's what's fun about it. You get to see what you've got at end. They had good athletes at quarterback and running back and a very creative offense. They did things to spread the defense to create one-on-one matchups for their athletes. That leaves no defensive margin for error. The guys had to make a lot of open field tackles."

Weiss continued. "The fumble recovery that stopped their drive in the fourth quarter was a huge play, but you never know when a play like that is going to occur. I think an even more important play was when we stopped them on fourth down from our three yard line on their first possession of the game. If they had scored right away, it would have made a statement. Instead, they came away empty and that made a statement for us. We're a young defense, we had our backs against the wall and that play gave us some confidence, which benefitted us in the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats had surprised everyone in the stadium by opening the game with an onside kick. "That was one of those things we'd been executing well in practice," said Weiss. "I guess they got us. But sometimes you give those things a shot. If you can sneak in something like that now and then, it gets everyone excited and gives you a huge boost. Unfortunately, they took over in great field position. Stopping them near the goal line on that drive was huge. We gave them a short field and they didn't take advantage of it."

Weiss addressed the incredible number of sacks by the Wildcat defense. "We've got some guys who have some speed," he said. "Eric had six sacks, Henry had two and several others joined the party. Henry and Eric are pretty quick out of their stance. The pressure on their quarterback was huge. I'm sure it got to the point where he was thinking about the lack of protection rather than his receivers. And our coverage was pretty solid, too. Those two facets feed off of each other."

Weiss had more praise for a couple of his players. "Henry made some nice blocks in open field." He said. "He's efficient in how he goes about his work. On one play, he came of the line and made a block. He moved to the next level and made another block, and then did it again. And Butch had a breakout game for us. We've been waiting for him to do a few things and he started to do some things on both sides of the ball tonight."

When asked about Willhite's outburst on the sidelines, Weiss said "He's a senior captain. He accepts responsibility and I think he takes his role seriously. There are times when you need a player to respond and say some things. It's always a fine line. He's a competitive kid and that makes him type of athlete that he is. You want that drive to rub off on other people. It's probably not going to be an every week thing, but he felt like he needed to let the team know how he felt. In addition, the plays he's made in the fourth quarter the last couple of weeks are big. He just seems to put it into overdrive. It was deflating for St. Louis Park to see him strike like that. Andy had another solid game and seems to get better as the game goes on. He's fun to watch."

SCORING SUMMARY

1 2 3 4 F

St. Louis Park 0 3 7 0 10

Chisago Lakes 0 13 0 14 27

The Wildcats travel to St. Louis Park to take on the 2-0 Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights at 7 p.m. tomorrow. The Red Knights beat Cooper in overtime to open the season two weeks ago, and then lost to Totino Grace by 24 points this past Friday. "Benilde's a lot different than St. Louis Park," said Weiss. "They're primarily a power-based offense. They'll run it right at you and mix it up with the play-action pass. We both live and die by the run. And they don't just sit back in one defense. It will be a challenge for our guys to react to different looks, make blocks and make reads. They're a solid, hard-nosed football team. We seem to play a close, competitive game with them every year. It'll be a fun game."

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