By: Eric Young

        The Wildcat football team fell to county rival Parry McCluer for the fourth consecutive time in their season opener. The Blues broke a tie late in the fourth quarter to defeat the ‘Cats 21-14 to improve to 1-0 on the season while the ‘Cats dropped to 0-1.

        The game got off to a quick start with Parry McCluer running back Marcellius Dawson breaking free for a 76-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game to take a 7-0 lead. Wildcat running back Triniti Stores tied the game at seven in the second quarter after catching a pass from quarterback Ben Rhodenizer and breaking multiple tackles for a score. After a one-yard touchdown run by Parry McCluer’s K.J. Cook with just over a minute left in the half, the ‘Cats immediately answered back with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Rhodenizer to Jailik Lynch to go into the half tied at 14.

The second half quickly became a defensive duel with neither team able to put another point on the board, until late in the fourth quarter when Parry McCluer’s Jeremy Nelson, scored on a two yard run to take the lead 21-14. The Blues never looked back as the ‘Cats turned it over on downs in the final minutes of the game, allowing the Blues to run out the clock and effectively end the game.

        The game marked Coach Mark Poston’s head coaching debut as a Wildcat. After a hard fought game by the team, Poston believes the team will be able to bounce back next week against Liberty.

        “We have to [bounce back], it’s a long season and our guys will, they’re fighters and they’ll come back Monday ready to play,” said Poston. “I think you saw how hard they played tonight, and hopefully we will have a big crowd go down to Liberty with us, and watch us take care of business down there.”

        According to Poston, the Wildcats were able to build off the crowd’s energy to keep them in the game.

        “Oh [the crowd] absolutely [helped out],” said Poston. “The crowd was amazing tonight.”

        Several mistakes in the game, including two costly roughing the kicker penalties on fourth down, helped to keep the ball with the Blues for the majority of the game. Poston took responsibility for these mistakes and believed he did not prepare the players well enough on how to handle it.

        “That’s my fault,” said Poston. “If we’ve got guys who are not sure of the down and distance, that’s my fault, we haven’t practiced that situation enough.”

        Late in the first quarter, Rhodenizer went down with a minor injury, but returned shortly after.

        “Ben got injured in the first quarter, and he gutted it out the whole game, said Poston. “Ben will be fine.”

        Backup quarterback Dustin Mays replaced Rhodenizer for a portion of the game, and was able to keep the offense stable in his time in the game.

        “ I was very surprised, but when people call your name you gotta do what you got to do, and that is why you practice all week,” said Mays. “Even if you lose, you got to come out next week ready.”

        Rhodenizer is optimistic about next week’s matchup at Liberty high school, and hopes to be motivated to bring home a victory.

        “Last year the only game we did win was against Liberty-Bedford, so everybody on the team knows we can do it,” said Rhodenizer. “This is my extra motivation for my teammates, to come out with heart, bust our butts and get the W next week.”

Junior quarterback Ben Rhodenizer discusses the play call with head coach Mark Poston during Friday nights game against Parry McCluer

Wide receiver Kyle Irvine is hoping the team will be able to put the loss aside and be able to move past it.

“The best thing we can do right now is just forget about it,” said Irvine. “We have to take things one game at a time and come into every week having the mindset that out record is 0-0.”

According to Irvine, mental errors towards the end of the game helped swing the momentum towards the Blues.

“I think one of the main things we need to work on is being being able to execute late in the game,” said Irvine. “We played great up until the 4th quarter where we had a couple mental errors and simple mistakes that, in the end, were definite game changers.”

The ‘Cats will face the Minutemen when they travel to Liberty High School next friday, September 2, at 7 pm.