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As a steady rain fell early in the Wildcat’s homecoming matchup with Princeton last Friday night, it looked like the Wildcats were going to turn it into a blowout.  They scored in their first two offensive plays of the game to go up 13-0.  On their next possession, a Wildcat player scored on a long run to apparently give the Wildcats a three touchdown lead while the game was in the first quarter.  But the play was called back because of an inadvertent whistle by one of the referees.  The Tigers went on to stop the Wildcats on that possession and what had looked like a blowout became a pretty tight matchup.  The Wildcat defense came up with two big plays late in the game and held off the charging Tigers 21-12 for their second win of the season.

After Matt Mohr tackled a Tiger receiver for a two yard loss on fourth down on the game’s opening drive, the Wildcats took over at their own 44.  On first down, quarterback Henry Trost dropped back to pass and fired a strike to a wide open Aaran Hickcox at the Tiger 30.  Hickcox outraced a Tiger defensive back to the end zone for a touchdown and, after Alex Morehead kicked the extra point, the Wildcats led 7-0 with 7:20 left in the first quarter.

Two plays later, the Wildcat defense force a fumble and Hickcox pounced on it at the Princeton 40 yard line.  On the next play, Mohr took a handoff and ran around right end.  The blocking was perfect and Mohr raced untouched into the end zone with just under five minutes left in the first quarter.  The Wildcats missed the extra point and led 13-0.

The Wildcats forced the Tigers into a three and out on their next possession and, after a fortuitous bounce on a punt, the Wildcats took over on their own 15.  On third and 14 from the 11, Ethan Lundsted went up the middle for 16 yards, dragging half the Princeton defense with him for the last five yards as he got the Wildcat first down.  On second and nine from the 26, a Wildcat runner went around right end, took advantage of some excellent blocking and went 72 yard for the aforementioned apparent touchdown that was called back because of the inadvertent whistle.  Wildcat head coach Bill Weiss appeared to take the news calmly as one of the referees explained to him what happened, but Wildcat offensive coordinator Jeff Saueressig appeared to be visibly upset.  It’s likely that, in the rain, none of the players on the field even heard the whistle.  Even so, the referees had no choice but to disallow the touchdown and bring the ball back to the Wildcat 28 yard line.

After forcing the Wildcats to punt, the Tigers took over on their own 45 yard line with 13 minutes left in the first half.  They went on an 11 play drive that took over eight minutes off the clock. Jake Carlson went over from the one.  The Tigers missed the extra point and the Wildcats led 13-6.  On Princeton’s last possession of the half, Peter Vitalis made a touchdown-saving tackle at the Wildcat 25 with 4:38 remaining.  The Tiger got another first down at the 12 yard line.  On fourth and 14 from the 16 yard line, Princeton quarterback Damon Rademacher scrambled to the left, stepped up toward the line of scrimmage and fired a pass into the end zone.  Mitch Barrett knocked the ball away for the Wildcats and protected their seven point lead going into the half.

When the teams came out for the second half, the rain was gone.  On the Wildcats’ second possession of the half, they took over at their own 29 with 7:45 left in the third quarter and went on a ten play drive.  On third and seven from the Princeton 27, Mohr took a pitch to the right and got knocked out of bounds right at the 20, barely getting the first down.  On second and five from the 15, Trost kept the ball, slid left and ran through a huge hole into the end zone for a touchdown.  The Wildcats decided to go for two.  Trost rolled right, felt some pressure and whipped the ball to Corbin Lee in the front right corner of the end zone.  Lee hung on for the conversion and the Wildcats led 21-6 with 4:11 left in the third quarter.

The Wildcats fumbled the ball away at the beginning of the fourth quarter and Princeton went on a ten play scoring drive that took almost six minutes off the clock. Tim Bialka went over from the one to cut the Wildcat lead to 21-12.  Princeton quarterback Rademacher rolled right and fired a pass toward a receiver in the front right corner of the end zone.  But Matt Mohr emphatically knocked the ball away to keep the Wildcat lead at nine points.

Needing two scores, the Tigers tried the inevitable onside kick and recovered the ball at the Wildcat 38 with exactly five minutes left in the game.  They moved the ball deeper into Wildcat territory and ended up facing second and nine with 2:40 remaining.  Rademacher dropped back and floated a pass into the left side of the end zone.  “It looked like the Hindenburg,” said Wildcat Activities Director Neil Fletcher.  Anders Brown outjumped the Tiger receiver for the ball, intercepted it and fell to the ground to seal the win for the Wildcats.  Asked how it felt to make the game winning play, Brown said “It feels awesome.  I’m glad we could get a ‘W’.  That was a really good game, well-fought.”  And Brown agreed that it may have been the highest he had ever jumped.  Weiss said “Anders had good position and judged it right.  He has been a solid player on offense and defense.  He basically sealed the game for us at that point.  What a great play.”

Mohr led all rushers with 85 yards on eight carries, and Trost ran for 43 yard on 12 carries.  Trost also competed two of three passes for 71 yards and a touchdown.  Bialka led Princeton with 76 yards on 18 carries, and Princeton quarterbacks went a combined 10 of 21 through the air, with two interceptions.

“We certainly had some opportunities to put this one away earlier,” said Weiss.  “But we stopped ourselves too often.  We put the ball on the ground a number of times.  We didn’t lose many of them, but even if you recover the ball it’s a wasted play.  Our defense had several good stands all night.  And we needed some of those stops to keep ourselves in the game.  Hats off to our defense for coming through when they did.

“An even bigger play than Brown’s was when Matt Mohr knocked down the pass for the two point conversion attempt after they had cut it to nine.  Keeping the lead to nine meant they had to score twice to beat us, which is tough with five minutes to go in the game.  We had some breathing room.  They did recover the ensuing onside kick, but even if they had scored the chances of them recovering a second onside kick were pretty low.  Ethan Greene played very well on the defensive line for us tonight.  He made five solo tackles and had three or four assists, as well.  And we asked Terrell Ayers to play at linebacker and at safety for us.  He responded by playing very well at both positions.”
 
Football Flotsam
The Wildcats (2-2) will take on Big Lake (1-3) tomorrow night at Big Lake High School at 7 p.m.  Big Lake beat North Branch 34-25 last week.  “Big Lake looks pretty tough,” said Weiss.  “They do some things with a single wing offense that can present some problems for a defense.  We will have to play with a lot of discipline on defense to stop what they are trying to do.  We will have our hands full on both sides of the ball.”

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