On Friday, Aug. 30 the varsity football team traveled for their first game of the season to play against the Karnes City Badgers. The end result was a 36-14 loss for the Yorktown squad. The second half showed promise for the Wildcats.
Yorktown scored on their opening drive of the second half, after trailing 22-0 at half-time. The drive started on the 49 yard line with Brody Metting carrying the ball down the right side. Running back Garrett Menn would be brought down on the two yard line before Metting punched it in, 22-6. Kason Sullivan tacked on the extra point. The Wildcat offense was ignited.
The Badgers returned the kick to the 40 yard line but a holding call pushed them back to the 30. A slew of Wildcats sacked the quarterback, making it a third down and four situation. A facemask call was made against the Wildcats, advancing the Badgers to the 45 and making it first and ten. They would exchange penalties as Karnes City was immediately called for holding and the ball was taken back to the 35 yard line. On first down with 20 yards to go, Rylan Rau brought down the quarterback in the backfield. The Badger quarterback scrambled for a 37 yard touchdown, 29-7.
From the 42 yard line, the Badgers connected on a 57 yard pass, were brought down on the one yard line, and then punched it in, 36-7.
Another offensive second half highlight for Yorktown came when Brayden Knostman was substituted in as quarterback and scored his first career touchdown. With 8:41 left in the fourth quarter, Knostman would scramble 13 yards before being brought down on the 10 yard line. With 7:11 remaining, he would jet up the middle to score, 36-13. Once again, Sullivan was successful at adding on the extra point.
A badger was forced out of bounds on the three yard line by Hagen Newman with a little over a minute left in the game. It was first down and three yards to go when Karnes City elected to kneel on the ball to conclude the matchup, 36-14.
A few unfortunate events is what hindered the Wildcats during the first half.
“We were playing toe to toe with them, but then we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times,” Head Coach Ryan Knostman said. “Head to head, play to play, was pretty good; it was just a couple unfortunate costly mistakes in that first half. I wish the outcome would have been different, but overall we have some things we can build on.”
The game remained tied 0-0 through the first period. It wasn’t until 7:44 in the second quarter that the Badgers took to the field after a timeout and added the first points of the night on the board, 6-0. The Karnes City offense scored on consecutive drives, 15-0. With 3:08 remaining in the first half It looked as if the Wildcats would score and bring the game within reach when Metting scooted down the left sideline before being brought down in the red zone. A holding call pushed Yorktown back from the 18 yard line to the 28. Unfortunately, on the following play, an opposing player stripped the ball while Yorktown was handing off and ran down the field with it before being brought down. The wildcat defense responded by forcing a fumble, unfortunately a badger recovered it and two plays later Karnes City was back in the endzone, 22-0.
The defensive highlight of the first half came at the start of the second period. With Karnes City on the 18 yard line, Richard Flores sacked the opposing quarterback making it fourth down.Thequarterback was chased by a slew of Wildcats, under pressure he scrambled and threw an incomplete pass therefore turning the ball over on downs. The Badgers looked like they were in position to score but the wildcat defense held strong.
The Wildcats are 0-1 and will have their first home game against Banquette on Friday, Sept. 6 with kickoff set at 7:00 p.m.
