If you were at Lion Memorial Stadium Friday night, you were treated to two games for the price of one. If you were an Athens fan you saw the game you had wished and prayed for with Athens beating Kennedale 14-0, completely dominating the game. If you were a Kennedale fan, you saw your Cats rise from the dead and soundly beat the Athens Hornets 47-13 in the other game. {{more}}
Which was the real game? Sadly for Athens (8-4, 4-1) and happily for Kennedale (12-0, 5-0), these were just two halves of the same game that ended with a 47-26 Wildcat win and a ticket to the region quarterfinals next week. But, no two halves could have been so completely unalike even if it was a Hollywood movie script.
Game 1 ? first half …
Athens does what it does best, dominating with a powerful running game that eats up the clock and crushes the opponent into submission. There were only three possessions in the first half for Athens but they scored on two while stopping Kennedale from even sniffing the goal line on their four possessions.Kennedale managed only 83 yards in the 1st half and 2 first downs on 14 attempts and zero points, something that has not happened in the first half of any game since 2013. Quardraiz Wadley left the game early, not fully recovered from his injury in the Carter game last week, and he would not play again. He had 8 yards on 3 carries instead of his 207 yard average per game.
Athens on one series alone ate up nearly 10 minutes of the clock. Their star runner, Logan Fuller was just yards away from breaking the 6,000 career yards mark. Needing 173, he had gained 128 yards. For the half Athens had 131 yards, 8 first downs on 28 plays and 2 touchdowns. Athens fans were celebrating in the stands and looking forward to moving to the quarterfinals.
Game 2 ? second half …
Cheerleaders rally fans during Wildcat comeback on Friday night
First play from scrimmage, Dailyn Wells (Sr) pops one up the middle for 48 yards and a touchdown and Kennedale is on the scoreboard 8 secs in and the game was back on. In this half , Kennedale ran 20 plays for 420 yards at an average of 21 yards per carry. Kennedale scored on seven of its 8 possessions with a fumble on the other. Six of the Cats 7 touchdowns came in three plays or less. Three were on the first play of the series.
Wells scored 4 times on runs of 48, 56, 73 and 37 yards and picked up 263 yards for an average carry of 23.9 yards. His total for the whole game was 289 yards at 20.6 yard average.DJ Kirven (Fr) who stepped in for the injured Wadley, carried the ball 11 times for 109 yards (9.9 av) and 2 touchdowns. He had just one play in the first half for 5 yards.Kaiser McGlothen picked up his game touchdown in the second half on a 56 yard run. He had 2 carries in the 2nd half and 8 total for the game for 95 yards (11.8 av).For the game Kennedale gained 501 yards on 36 attempts at 13.9 yards per, passed once for an incompletion, fumble twice and lost once and picked up 6 penalties for 70 yards. The Cats blocked one extra point and recovered one fumble.
Athens in this half scored twice in 41 attempts on 224 yards for an average of 5.4 yards per attempt. For the game, Athens rushed for 295 yards on 63 attempts (4.7av) and pass for 60 yards (2/5) for a total of 355 yards and 4 touchdowns. Athens recorded one turnover on a fumble and 5 penalties for 30 yards while blocking one extra point.
Heroes of the game?Certainly for Athens, it was Logan Fuller who had 228 yards and 3 touchdowns and in the process broke the 6,000 yard career rushing mark with 6,055 yards in 3 years. (He played one down in his freshman year on varsity for 5 yards).
Game ball goes to the Wildcat team for coming together in the second half to take the win in the area playoffs (file photo)
For Kennedale if it is one person, it is senior running back Dailyn Wells for his career best performance and answering the call when Kennedale needed someone to step in and fill the void left by the injured Q Wadley. But, given how the game developed, the heroes of the game would also be the Kennedale team, who realized that they are more than just on player and that this team has talent out the whazoo. Playing together like they played in the second half of this game, it is not likely they can be beaten.Up next for the Wildcats is a rematch with Argyle (11-1, 5-0) in the Region II Quarterfinals on Friday at SMU Ford Stadium in Dallas. Game time 7:30 p.m.
