WALTON — The Lewis Cass Kings put themselves in position to knock off Class 1A No. 2 Pioneer on Friday night.
The Kings scored the first 15 points of the game and had all the momentum in the annual Clash of Cass County.
But the Panthers scored 20 unanswered points to stun the Kings in a 20-15 victory at Owens Memorial Field.
It was the Panthers’ fourth straight win in the series. They improved to 12-8 in the 20th all-time meeting.
Cass coach Clay Mannering lamented the fact that his team let a lead slip away.
“Obviously at halftime we’re feeling really good,” he said. “We really felt like if we could string some drives together in the second half that we’d be able to basically play stall ball and get it done. That didn’t happen. Offense had a hard time moving the ball in the second half. So hat’s off to Pioneer. They made an adjustment. We had one play that was really getting them, a toss play outside. They were able to basically shut that down. And we gave them the short field there after the bad snap on the punt. But outside of that, they drove the ball down the field and earned everything they got. So yeah, tough one tonight.”
The Kings scored on their two drives of the first half. They had a kneel down at the end of the half. But they had just one first down on their five drives of the second half.
“It was a little misleading in the first half because it was really one play that we were having a lot of success with,” Mannering said. “The disappointing thing for me is we were not able to adjust after they adjusted because you can take a play away, which means something else is there. We just weren’t able to do that. And the way our pass game works, we’re a pretty good pass team when the defense is worried about the run. We had the big completion there in the first half. But when you’re third-and-10, those passes are just not as successful. And so we became very one-dimensional because we were playing behind the sticks the whole second half offensively. And defensively, we just couldn’t get them off the field. We got them to fourth down a couple times. We got a couple stops, but we needed a couple more.”
The Kings went three-and-out on their first drive of the second half and had a snap sail over the punter’s head set the Panthers up at the Cass 9-yard line that set up a score that made it a 15-14 game.
“That was bad, but it’s a team thing,” Mannering said. “So you can blame it on one guy, but you could also say, ‘Hey, that’s the first time we had to punt all night. If we get a first down, that play doesn’t happen.’ So yeah, that was really unfortunate. But again, you know, they still had to cash it in and they were able to do that. But there was a momentum swing after that. There’s a huge difference between a 9-point lead and a 1-point lead. And then it ended up with them basically stealing our game plan of playing stall ball at the end. But we weren’t able to get anything going on the offense.”
The Kings’ defense had a chance to win the game but the Panthers converted a third-and-11 and two fourth-down plays during an 80-yard drive that took up 7:44 of the second half. Freshman quarterback Colton Popejoy evaded a sack on fourth-and-3 from the 26-yard line and hit Braxton Maciejewski for a 7-yard play to key the drive.
“That fourth down was tough,” Mannering said. “That kid’s a good player. He’s got good players in front of him that are blocking for him. It’s a hard thing to stop an offense in four plays. Four plays to get a first down is tough to stop. And that’s why in some ways I’m so disappointed. We just never got ourselves even in the position to go for it on fourth down until very late when you had to. And so hat’s off to the Panthers. I hate losing this game but it’s a good team we lost to tonight.”
Connyr Mack led the Kings with 51 yards rushing on 11 attempts and a touchdown. He was held to eight yards on four carries in the second half. Brinxston Jones had 42 yards on 11 attempts but just seven yards on two carries in the second half. Cole Rush was 4 of 13 passing for 80 yards and a TD but was 0 of 8 in the second half. Mack had two catches for 21 yards and a TD. Nate Packard had a 49-yard reception that set up a score. Eli Grist had a two-point conversion run. Tyler Foley Grist kicked a PAT.
Ty Lobenthal led the defense with 11 tackles. Eli Grist and Brecken Smith had nine tackles apiece. Hunter Sellers had eight tackles and blocked a PAT.
Cass travels to Northfield Friday to open TRC play.
Leave a Comment