Following a loss to Quince Orchard, the Wildcats were able to bounce back and defeat Wheaton 42-0 at their Homecoming football game. This was the first game of the season that the defense was able to shut out the opposing team.
WJ received the ball to start and the Wheaton kickoff led to the offense starting with the ball on the Wheaton 35 yard-line. This resulted in a rushing touchdown by senior quarterback Andrew Plotnick.
“It meant a lot because it was my first career varsity touchdown, but it was more important to get an early lead and gain early momentum. I worked really hard to get this opportunity and finally I’m getting the chance to have all that hard work pay off. I will continue to play the best I can and step into the role as long as the team needs me to,” Plotnick said.
On the next drive, Plotnick connected with senior running back Elijah Barringtine multiple times. Plotnick also synced up with senior wide receiver Pablo Foley and freshman running back Dylan Byrd throughout the first quarter. After the first 12 minutes of play, the Wildcats led 28-0.
“We started off fast and never took our foot off the gas. We introduced a faster paced offense and kept everything fairly simple,” Plotnick said.
To start the second quarter, running back Kiran Sen scored a rushing touchdown.
“We spent the week working a lot on inside runs perfecting our lineman’s blocks, which gave me a good path to get a lot of rushing yards and a touchdown,” Sen said.
During the second quarter Wheaton had two turnovers. The Wildcats recovered a fumble which resulted in a touchdown. Towards the end of the half, junior wide receiver and defensive back Nick Zampardi took over as quarterback.
“I had a really good time. I was honored to help the team and it was good to see everyone get on the field,” Zampardi said.
The Wildcats went into the second half leading 42-0 and were able to maintain that score the rest of the game.
This Friday, Sept. 30, WJ will try to get revenge on the Northwest Jaguars. The last time the Wildcats met the Jaguars, they were defeated 74-0.
Northwest head coach Travis Hawkins is involved in an ongoing investigation. He is facing assault charges because of the fight he was allegedly involved in against Gaithersburg. Northwest was suspended for a week because of this fight and this will be their first game back.
Head coach Larry Hurd Jr.’s first varsity head coaching job was at Northwest for the girls basketball team.
“I am really looking forward to Northwest. The team and I are excited and ready for revenge. We have been working our butts off to be ready for them. I definitely think we can win this game but we need the crowd to be ready too,” Zampardi said.
