The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
The West Prairie-La Harpe Cyclones traveled to Beardstown on Friday night and came away with a big 28-12 win. The victory was the first of the 2005 season for WP-LH and evened their record at 1-1 overall.
The Cyclones scored a touchdown in each period, while also keeping Beardstown's offense in check for most of the night.
The Tigers were able to score only twice, once on a fumble recovery and return in the first quarter, and on the games final play on a pass that should have been a sack.
WP-LH's first score came on their opening possession after nice runs by senior fullback Eric Swank, and junior halfback, Joel DeCounter, got them in scoring position. Senior signal caller, Keven Mershon, connected with junior tight end, Tyler Sharpe,on a 31 yard scoring toss to give the Cyclones the early lead. Junior place kicker added the P.A.T. kick for a quick 7-0 advantage.
An eight yard run by Swank in the 2nd quarter produced WP-LH's second score, while two yard runs by DeCounter, and junior halfback, Brian Butterfield, represented the second half tallies. Woolam was perfect on all of his extra point kicks to set the Cyclones final point total.
The Cyclones amassed 416 yards of total offense while holding Beardstown to 246 yards. WP-LH netted 374 yards on the ground in 60 carries as their offensive line showed substantial improvement from their week #1 performance.
Tight ends Sharpe and Randy Bray, tackles, Ryan Mullenix, and Jacob Markey, guards J.D. Hobby, and Dustin Deery, and center John Bruns showed the potential to become a dominating group up front.
Benefiting from the offensive lines improvement were halfbacks DeCounter (106 yards), Butterfield (70 yards), and Woolam (26 yards). Also, Swank (77 yards) and Mershon (92 yards), found the going a bit easier this week at fullback and quarterback respectively.
The passing game, though not used a lot, was effective when called upon. Mershon connected on 2 of his 3 attempts for 41 yards, including the touchdown pass to Sharpe, and a key completion to DeCounter for a first down in the 4th quarter to keep the final scoring drive alive.
The defense gave up 201 yards passing to the Tigers but only 45 yards rushing on 22 attempts. The Cyclones also had their first two takeaways this season as Butterfield picked off an errant Tiger toss, while sophomore outside linebacker, Skyler Pence, recovered a Beardstown fumble.
The following players had at least two tackle involvements (solo tackles and assisted tackles) for WP-LH: Mershon, Swank, DeCounter, Butterfield, Woolam, Mullenix, Sharpe, Pence, Evan Wisely, Jeremy McCoy and Justin Ward. Woolam, Swank, McCoy, and Wisely all recorded tackles for lost yardage by Beardstown.
The Cyclones will return to action this week when they host the Pittsfield Saukees. Pittsfield is also1-1 after two weeks of the 2005 campaign. The game will be at La Harpe and kickoff is slated for 7:00 p.m.