Two first half touchdowns and a strong defensive performance propelled Wright City to their third consecutive win to open the season.
The Wildcats (3-0) won their second consecutive home game with a 21-6 win over Mark Twain Friday. The Wildcats scored three touchdowns and limited Mark Twain to one touchdown in the win.
The Wildcats jumped out to an early 15-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of touchdown passes and crucial defensive stops. After the Wildcat defense stopped Mark Twain on 4th and 11 on the opening possession, Joey Gendron connected with Nathan Womack for a 49-yard touchdown pass on 3rd and 8 on the Wildcats’ first offensive possession of the game.
“We saw they were going to key on our outside pass,” Wright City head coach Tyler Rickard said. “Our bubble and our screen. Just watching how they flew to that first pass, we’re like we can get a slant on them. And sure enough, it was wide open. The guys flew to the bubble. Nate ran a route. Joey put it there and he took it to the house. It worked out like we hoped it would.”
Gendron threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Jeremiah Davis on Wright City’s second possession of the first quarter to extend the Wright City lead to 15-0. The Wildcats scored after Carleon Jones recovered a fumble on a 4th and 1 attempt by Mark Twain.
“Our defense just continuing to get stops was huge,” Rickard said. “That’s big momentum for us. We’re seeing that we can come out. We can stop these guys. And then just continue to play. That’s a really good football team. And so we knew we had our hands full and we were going to have to play really well. I’m just proud of our defense. Our offense early on we were really clicking. You couldn’t dream of a better start.”
For the second week in a row, Wright City extended their 15-0 lead to a three touchdown lead by scoring to open the third quarter. Davis’ electric 89-yard kickoff return for touchdown put the Wildcats up by three scores.
“That was huge. Jeremiah made a phenomenal play,” Rickard said. “He was like a pinball in there. Bouncing around. Bouncing around. All of the sudden, he leaks out. He’s gone. And so that was huge. Come out up 15-0 and then we get a touchdown right away, put them on their heels.”
Mark Twain scored late in the third quarter to trim Wright City’s lead to 21-6. The Wildcats stopped Mark Twain in the red zone with under seven minutes left in the game to clinch the victory.
The Wildcats will look to remain unbeaten this week in a road matchup at South Callaway (2-1).
“Our goal is 1-0 every week,” Rickard said. “We enjoy the victory but we’ve got to turn the page and it’s South Callaway week. Make sure that they get our sole focus next week. We can’t become complacent and settle and just be happy with being 3-0. We’ve got to keep pushing and pushing and pushing and try to go 1-0 every week the rest of the year.”
The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Friday.