Cats Drop Close Game Under the Lights, 38-31

In last night’s nail-biter, the Westminster Wildcats came up short against the MICDS Rams. Under the lights at Kirkwood High School, blue crew out in full force, these two teams came out very strong, both hungry for a win.

In the first quarter, Westminster scored two unanswered touchdowns within the first ten minutes, making the score 14-0. The first touchdown was scored by junior Atlin Hall after a long punt return. Hall had two of the team’s four touchdowns for the night and led the team in rushing yards with 106.

“Atln is tough as nails, he runs the ball hard and performed very well for our team last night,” said senior outside linebacker Levi Alldredge.

Senior quarterback Chad Briden also contributed not only with an effective passing attack, but also with an impressive ground game. Briden scored the team’s second touchdown in the first quarter with a 10 yard run to the end zone.

Although the Wildcats were off to a solid start, the MICDS Rams responded at the end of the first quarter with a touchdown by junior quarterback Graham Bundy. He carried the MICDS offense throughout the entirety of the game.

The second quarter consisted of back and forth scrappy play. Hall was the first to score with a rushing touchdown. Bundy put two more on the board for MICDS, making the score 21-17 at the half.

Even though they were up, coming into the second half, the Wildcats knew they would have to finish the game with the same intensity they started with.

The third quarter was more of a defensive battle, with only one touchdown scored by MICDS, making the score 24-21. Going into the fourth quarter, both teams knew it was going to come down to the last few minutes as to who was going to come out on top.

Junior kicker Andrew Kempen started swinging the momentum to the Wildcat’s with his game-tying 41 yard field goal to kick off the fourth quarter. However, MICDS quickly halted the WIldcats’ momentum by scoring a touchdown off a ten yard pass. Senior running back LB Battle scored on 23 yard run, again tying the game up with the Rams, making it 31-31. Both teams played great defensive ball the last six minutes. Going into the last minute of play, the game looked like it was going to go into overtime, but, MICDS’ Bundy was not going to let that happen. With a 24 yard run into the endzone, Bundy put MICDS up 7 points with 50 seconds left in the game. The Wildcats’ knew they were going to have to answer, and answer quickly.

“When MICDS got up by seven at the end of the game, I knew our offense would have to step up big time and make a huge play,” said Alldredge.

Even though the Wildcats fell short, they competed with intensity and determination throughout the whole game. This is one that they can be very proud of and continue to build from this close loss.

Come out and support your Wildcats at carnival next Saturday! Kick-off is at 1.