The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

The Harlem Wildcats were on the road again this week, this time making the trip west to take on the Shelby Coyotes in their Northern C Eight-man Conference opener. The Wildcats came away on the short end of a 44-22 score, but the score isn’t indicative of the teams overall effort. It’s safe to say that this team is going to play hard for four quarters regardless of the score.

The Wildcats began the game without senior standout Clay Adams who was sidelined after having his tonsils removed on Wednesday. Adams is a powerful back that can move the chains and a solid Linebacker that leads the Wildcat defense. Head Coach, Trenton Woodward looked to his younger kids to rise to the occasion and fill some big holes. Harlem started six freshman on the offensive side of the ball and four freshman on defense.

Senior Charlie Calvert stepped in at Runningback to help lead the offense and junior Leon Champagne was under center at Quarterback. Junior Thunder Bigby was a staple on the defensive line to help guide the younger kids and junior Troy Longknife helped secure the secondary at Defensive back.

Harlem stood tall early on, forcing a turnover and holding the Coyote offense in check for much of the first quarter. Shelby broke through with a 53 yard drive to score the opening points with 5:50 left in the first quarter to go up 6-0. That’s when things really fell apart for the young Wildcat team.

Harlem fumbled the kickoff on three straight occasions giving the Coyotes short fields to work with. Harlem did get a stop after the second fumble with Bigby recording a huge sack in the back field to end a Shelby drive. When the Harlem offense finally got a chance to touch the ball again, their first two plays from scrimmage resulted in back to back interceptions. Five straight Wildcat turnovers deep in their own territory led to 22 points by Shelby in just :58. A fourth score on the first play of the second quarter extended the Shelby lead to 36-0.

The clock now ran continuously and the Coyotes took their time. Harlem managed to stop the bleeding and get control back on offense, but a late score surrendered by the defense left Harlem down 44-0 heading into halftime.

“I told the team at halftime, we lost the first half, that’s behind us, let’s go win the second half,” said Woodward. The young Wildcat team surely heard what the Head Coach said and came out fired up and ready to play to start the third quarter.

This was a different team than fans have seen for years, this group of football players began moving with a sense of urgency, executing plays as they were coached to do and aware of everything that was happening on the field. Yes, Coach White had his two’s and three’s on the field for the Coyotes, but the way the Wildcats played the game was impressive.

Harlem held the Coyotes to negative yards in the second have and without a first down. Shelby did not score or force a turnover. The Harlem offense began to move the ball with purpose and the defense kept getting the ball back to them. With a running clock things happen quickly. Harlem scored on a short touchdown run from Champagne to get them on the board.

Moments later Champaign punched it in again off the triple option where he sold the pitch and then kept it himself for the easy score. Champagne add the conversion attempt giving Harlem 14 points in the contest.

The Wildcats pinned the Coyotes deep in their own territory with time running down. Longknife saw an opportunity and jumped in front of the Coyote receiver to make a nice interception, returning it 21 yards to paydirt. Freshman Cole McCabe added the conversion providing the final points of a 44-22 Wildcat setback to the Coyotes.

“They had the chance to roll over and quit and they didn’t, that was one my proudest moments, said Woodward. We have to have a sense of urgency no matter what we do. Down by 40 or up by 20 we got to play with the same sense of urgency. That was one of the highlights, they really started to trust their coaching and play that way on the field; I was really proud of them.”

Woodward added, “ Looking back on it while on the bus coming home, we talked about the second half when we had our kids playing kids their same age. They were dominate, they competed. I thought defensively we were solid, I would have liked to have seen more out of our front line but at the end of the day they played good on defense. On offense we have a long way to go but that’s youth and inexperience and they will learn from the school of hard knocks and they’ll get there.”

Harlem will host Rocky Boy this Friday for Homecoming.