Kenton air attack downs Cougars

DAVE MOSIER/independent sports

KENTON — The Van Wert Cougars showed some improvements, but still lacked the offensive punch of the Kenton Wildcats, who defeated the Cougars 44-7 in a storm-shortened Western Buckeye League match-up on Friday.

Van Wert quarterback Tyler Williams had trouble getting rid of the ball quickly and paid the price in sacks, giving him a minus-44 yards rushing on the night. The Cougars as a team had only 45 positive rushing yards on the night.

Kenton quarterback Grant Sherman provided the fireworks on the night, hitting 30 of 46 pass attempts for 391 yards and five touchdowns, but also threw for an interception that led to the Cougars’ only touchdown.

The Wildcats went for the jugular right from the start, using a successful onside kick to get the ball on the first possession of the night. Kenton scored 2½ minutes later when Sherman hit Colyn Blackford for a 3-yard touchdown with 9:23 left on the first-quarter clock. Sherman also hooked up with Blackford for a point-after pass that made it 8-0, Kenton.

After Van Wert’s drive stalled, the Wildcats came back quickly, scoring their second TD on a 7-yard pass from Sherman to Justin Sawmiller at 4:47 on the night. The PAT pass was no good and Kenton was up 14-0.

The Wildcats scored its last touchdown of the stanza in the waning seconds of the first quarter when Sherman found Blackford for a 47-yard scoring strike with just 38 seconds left on the clock. The pair hooked up again for the PAT pass and it was 22-0.

Kenton’s next score came approximately three minutes into the second quarter when Sherman hit Sawmiller on a 60-yard touchdown pass at 8:58 in the quarter. Sherman connected with Jack Mock for a two-point PAT pass and it was 30-0, Wildcats.

Van Wert’s defense scored its only touchdown of the night when Nik Wolford picked off a Sherman pass and ran 26 yards to paydirt. Terrin Contreras kicked the extra point and it was 30-7 with a minute to play in the first half.

The Cougar defense stiffened in the second half, allowing Kenton just two scores. The first came in the third quarter when Sherman ran the ball in from the Van Wert 1-yard-line with 4:34 left in the quarter, while the Wildcats scored their final touchdown on a 34-yard pass from Sherman to Zach Wolowicz at the 8:37 mark of the fourth quarter.

Van Wert got a bit of a break when the game was canceled with 1:56 remaining when strong storms and lightning struck.

The Cougars are now 0-3 on the year and 0-2 in the WBL. They will face another league test this coming Friday when they host the Elida Bulldogs, which are currently 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the WBL and were leading St. Marys 20-3 when that game was postponed because of storms and lightning. In fact, all four of the WBL contests other than Van Wert and Kenton were halted by lightning.