The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The West Prairie-La Harpe Cyclones played well enough to win - barely - on Friday night at Rushville in West Central Conference football action. The Cyclones built an early 21-0 lead and then overcame their own mistakes to post a 29-20 win over the host rockets.
The visiting Cyclones came out charged up and took the ball right down the field on their first three possessions of the game. The initial 13 play drive culminated in a 6-yard TD run by senior fullback Christopher Link. Freshman place-kicker Matt Woolam delivered a perfect PAT kick for a 7-0 advantage.
The Cyclones second score followed another 13 play drive following a Rushville punt. This time, senior halfback Stephen Butterfield rambled in from 11 yards out. The PAT kick sailed wide left and the visitors held a 13-0 edge.
West Prairie-La Harpe's defense followed the score with another stop to force a Rocket punt. This time it took the Cyclones only 8 plays to reach pay dirt as senior QB Chase DeCounter hit classmate Dustin Moore in stride with a 22-yard scoring strike. DeCounter followed with a successful run for the conversion for a 21-0 Cyclone lead.
From that point Rushville rallied, as the Cyclones missed tackles, missed coverages, and missed opportunities to score. Finally the Rockets closed to 21-20 with a conversion attempt coming up to take the lead. Fortunately, that is when the WP-LH squad came back to life.
The Cyclone defense stopped the conversion run to maintain the narrow 1-point advantage. The visitors then successfully fielded the ensuing on-side kick attempt. The pressure was now on the Cyclone offense to produce and close out the win.
On a 2nd and 9 from midfield, DeCounter fooled the defense with a bootleg fake and raced 37 yards down the left sideline. Two plays later, Butterfield powered in from 6 yards out for a 27-20 lead. DeCounter's option run for the conversion sealed the win with 1:27 to go.
The Cyclone offense gained 469 yards versus Rushville, including 361 on the ground. Butterfield topped the ground attack with 117 yards on 11 carries. DeCounter also topped the century mark with 102 yards rushing. Link chipped in with 81 yards, while Brett Pendell had 51 and Brittain Daudelin added 10.
DeCounter was efficient throwing the ball as he connected on 4 of his 6 attempts for 108 yards. Butterfield had a pair of catches for 61 yards, while Moore (22 yards) and Daudelin (25 yards) each had a single catch.
Defensively, the Cyclones were better than week one, but still have a lot of room for improvement. They gave up 318 yards to the Rockets, including 189 on the ground. Plus, they were able to produce only one Rushville turnover. These numbers must improve as the season progresses, if the Cyclones want to be successful on a bigger scale.
DeCounter led the defensive charge with 11 tackle involvements. This is way too many for a safety. Linebackers Jon Zaehringer and Christopher Link had 7 tackles each, while defensive ends Eric Magee and Justin Mohr had 5 each. Jason Poulter, Bret Pendell, Stephen Butterfield, Ty Huston, Jacob Bice, and Brittain Daudelin had at least 3 tackle involvements each.
The Cyclones return to action this Friday night when they host the 2-0 Warsaw Wildcats. This game will be at Baumann Field in Sciota with a scheduled 7:00 p.m. kick-off.