It was muddy, wet and cold. Even with moaning and groaning from the student section of the WJ stadium, there was a football game to be played.
While the fans waited for kickoff in the wet, cold stadium, there was hope for the Wildcats, as they were facing off against the 1-4 Northwest Jaguars. With the Jaguars having only one win this season, the game appeared to be fairly well-matched. However, the weather would turn what appeared on the schedule to be a clean and even game into quite a different situation.
Over the course of the game, the wet and slippery conditions led to players losing traction and slipping, resulting in a total of 12 fumbles.
“The weather definitely affected the field and footing, but it mainly affected the ball and the passing game,” said junior quarterback Cole Ahnell. “We couldn’t pass well like we usually do because the ball was so wet.”
The first of these many fumbles came early in the first quarter. The Wildcats received the kickoff, but could not hold onto the ball and fumbled. This allowed Northwest to jump on the loose ball, obtaining an excellent field position inside the red zone for their first series of the game.
WJ’s defense held strong on the goal line, stopping the Jaguars on fourth and goal. However, this left the offense in a vulnerable position and the Wildcats could not get out of their own end zone before getting wrapped up for a safety. Northwest took an early 2-0 lead and got the ball back.
The Wildcats eventually stopped the Jags, who weren’t playing with a punter, on fourth down and got the ball back. After a few plays for minimal yardage, Ahnell handed the ball off to senior running back Michael Pitsenberger, who secured the ball and made his way through the Northwest defense before breaking free and running it in for a touchdown. The point-after touchdown field goal was missed, but nonetheless, WJ had a 6-2 lead to take into the second quarter.
The Jaguars responded. They capitalized on another WJ fumble, as their running back took a hand-off and bounced to the outside, beating the WJ secondary and scoring a long touchdown run. After a successful 2-point conversion, Northwest led 10-6.
WJ tried to answer back before the end of the half, with a few Pitsenberger runs and key catches by junior running back Sean Montgomery. Yet the Wildcats were still not able to put points on the board before the clock ran out.
Northwest began the third quarter with an impressive drive topped off with a stunning play. After driving to WJ’s 30-yard line, the Jaguars’ quarterback launched a perfect pass to a receiver in the corner of the end zone, leading his man just enough to prevent the pass from being batted down. The receiver then ran under the ball and perfectly got a foot perfectly in bounds. The score went to 18-6 after a 2-point conversion.
After back-and-forth sloppy play, the ball ended up in WJ’s hands with four minutes left in the third quarter. Ahnell handed off to Pitsenberger, who slipped through a few defenders and sped past the Northwest secondary, en route to a WJ touchdown. Or so it seemed. Fans and players noticed the dreaded spec of yellow laundry on the field and knew what the penalty flag meant: holding, on the offense, – a 10-yard penalty. The touchdown was brought back.
Although this was the last chance for a WJ victory, the Cats did get the ball back and got it into the red zone. Ahnell received the snap in the shotgun formation and handed off to Montgomery. Montgomery then ran to his right before throwing a strike to Pitsenberger, who made the catch and ducked into the end zone. It was an interesting display of trickery, and something the team will look to use again.
“The play works because the defense thinks it’s a run forcing the defensive back to come up, leaving receivers open,” said Sean Montgomery.
Despite the score, 18-12, WJ actually outgained Northwest in yardage 291 to 205.
“I feel that we should have won the football game,” said Kadi. “Obviously it was tough weather conditions for both teams, but I felt that we outplayed the opponent.”
In fact, in all but two games, against Gaithersburg and Whitman, WJ has outgained their opponent, a stat that gives hope that, with just a few breaks, the Wildcats are fully capable of pulling out a victory in upcoming games against Blair, Wootton and Richard Montgomery.
“They have continued to learn from their mistakes, and they know they can play with any team on our schedule,” said Kadi. “They just need to continue to understand and execute the game plan.”
