The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The West Prairie-La Harpe Cyclones met the Warsaw-Nauvoo Wildcats last Friday night in an early season battle of West Central Conference unbeatens. Both teams came in at 2-0, but only the Cyclones left Sciota's Baumann Field with an unblemished record. After giving up an early Wildcat Score, the Cyclones blistered the visitors with 58 unanswered points to roll to a 58-8 win.
A long run (64 yards) on the game's 2nd play gave Warsaw-Nauvoo an early advantage in this contest. The Cyclones answered with a 10 play, 55 yard drive for a score of their own. Senior fullback Christopher Link, finished the drive with a 13 yard run to score. Stephen Butterfield's conversion run knotted the score at 8-all.
After forcing a Wildcat punt, the Cyclones got a big boost from their special teams. Brett Pendell went 43 yards with the return to set the Cyclones up on the Warsaw 14 yard line. Three plays later, Butterfield plunged in from 3 yards out to give WP-LH their first lead. Pendell raced in with the conversion to set the score at 16-8 for the hosts.
Another defensive stand by WP-LH gave the ball over to the Cyclones again late in the first period. Butterfield scored on a 48 yard jaunt as the quarter horn sounded to give the Cyclones a 22-8 lead and they never looked back from there.
Pendell added a 46-yard run on a counter play to the left side in the 2nd period to push the margin to 20 points. A successful conversion run by Link made the scoreboard light up 30-8 at the halftime intermission.
The Cyclones scored twice each in the game's last two periods to set the final margin of victory. Chase DeCounter scored on a 1-yard sneak, while teammate and fellow senior Brittain Daudelin dove in from 5 yards out during the 3rd period. The conversion was successful following Daudelin's score as DeCounter hit Link in the back of the end zone with a play-action pass.
The final two Cyclone scores came on a pair of exciting plays. The first was a tough 14-yard run by Junior Halfback Robbie Moon. Moon's run capped a nice drive by the Cyclone second offensive unit in their first real game action of the season.
The last touchdown came on an electrifying 61-yard punt return by Pendell down the north sideline. A crushing block by Link helped spring Pendell and he made it pay off with a nifty move to beat the last defender. Junior quarterback Jason Poulter ran in the final conversion for the final 58-8 score.
Offensively, this night belonged to the Cyclone front line. The unsung heroes of the trench continually opened big holes in the Wildcat defense. Center Ben Cox, guards Jacob Bice and Eric Magee, tackles Justin Mohr, Ty Huston and Matt Swanson, and tight ends Isaac Rogers and Dustin Moore dominated the line of scrimmage on this wet and windy night.
The Cyclones netted 429 yards of total offense with 382 yards coming on the ground. Butterfield topped the century mark with 127 yards on 11 carries. Pendell added 93 yards, while Link chipped in a hard-nosed 60 yards. De Counter had 25 yards, Eric Swank contributed 33, Moon added 32, Daudelin finished with 14, while Joel DeCounter and Kevin Mershon each got 2 yards on their first varsity carries.
DeCounter connected on 1 of 2 pass attempts for 47 yards. Pendell hauled in the toss to add to his big night. The first year senior had a "break-out game" as he also netted 174 yards on 5 punt returns.
The Cyclone defense continued their improvement as they played their best game of the short season thus far. Linebackers Jon Zaehringer, Link, Pendell and Butterfield all finished with at least 7 tackle involvements (solos and assists). Ty Huston, Eric Magee, Matt Swanson, Eric Swank, Justin Mohr and Jason Poulter each had at least 3 tackles. Mohr -2; Link-2; Huston-1; Swanson-1; and Zaehringer-1, all had tackles for loss on the night.
The defensive effort was aided by another solid job of kicking by Dusty Moore. This helped keep Warsaw playing on a long field most of the night.
The Cyclones return to action this Friday evening when they travel to Mount Sterling to square off with the Brown County Hornets. That contest will kick-off at 7:00 p.m.