High School Football: Indians 30, Wildcats 22
MORAN A few breaks here or there could have made things much rosier for Marmaton Valley High. The old adage that football is a game of inches was never more evident Friday.
But in the end, line play up front was the biggest key in Marmaton Valleys 30-22 loss to Oswego, dropping the Wildcats to 0-2 on the young season.
The visiting Indians were successful on a series of key third- and fourth-down conversions, first to jump out to a 30-8 lead, then to bleed off enough clock late to prevent a wild Wildcat comeback.
Its a little upsetting with the way we played up front, Marmaton Valley head coach Gavin Cole said. Defensively, we got blown off the ball most of the night. Theres a reason why coaches stress blocking and tackling.
A pair of missed Wildcat scoring opportunities were pretty big, too.
The first came late in the first first quarter with the Wildcats trailing 8-0. Marmaton Valley made it to the Oswego 1 before a pair of runs up the middle were stuffed by the Indian defense. A false start penalty made it fourthand-6. Caiden Elliotts mad dash around left end only covered five.
Oswego proceeded to march 79 yards to take a 16-0 lead remember, its an 80-yard field in eight-man football on a 16-play touchdown drive covering three third down and fourth down conversion.
We got them in a lot of situations where it looked good for us, Cole said, and then we missed tackles.
The misery continued when Marmaton Valley marched back into scoring position before a lost fumble gave Oswego possession at its 27.
Indian running back Jace Wilson blasted through the line and ran untouched for a 53-yard score on the next play from scrimmage to push the Oswego lead to 24-0.
You miss a tackle on him, Cole said. and hes going to make your life pretty miserable.
The Wildcats caught a mammoth break on their lone scoring drive of the first half.
Elliotts pass on fourth-and-7 from midfield bounced off the hands of an Oswego defender and into the waiting arms of William Lowder, who darted to the Indian 3. Isaac Heskett rumbled in for a touchdown on the next play to cut Oswegos lead to 24-8 at intermission.
But that did little to quell Oswegos momentum. The Indians started the second half with another long scoring drive, capped by a Wilson 3-yard touchdown to push the lead back to 30-8.
The Wildcats marched down the field, capped with a 7-yard Elliott touchdown to cut the deficit to 30-14.
Then, Oswego had a fourth-down touchdown pass called back because of penalty, and its next pass attempt fall incomplete, giving the Wildcats a glimmer of hope. Even better, a 25-yard fourth-down pass from Gage Griffith to Anthony Botini set up Marmaton Valley at the Oswego 15.
