As they have reached the halfway point of their 2020 season, the Wright City Wildcats are looking to finish with another winning record.

But in order to do that, the Wildcats have to find a way to get back on the scoreboard. They have been shut out in their last two games, including a 37-0 loss to Montgomery County on the road on Sept. 25. Wright City hasn’t scored a point since the second quarter in its Week 3 game against Winfield.

“We have some great leaders on the team,” Wright City coach Jeff Sargent said. “I just hope they stay positive for the next three weeks because we have a great opportunity to go 3-0 in the next three weeks and that’s all we have to worry about now.”

The Wildcats are 3-2 overall and 1-2 in Eastern Missouri Conference play with four regular season games remaining. They’re back in action at 7 p.m. on Oct. 2 with a road game against the Mark Twain Tigers. Wright City cruised to a 40-0 win over Mark Twain a year ago.

The Wildcats defeated Clopton, Bishop Ward High School in Kansas City, Kan., and Winfield in their first three games before losing back-to-back contests to Bowling Green and Montgomery County. Wright City lost 54-0 to Bowling Green in Week 4.

“I can say Bowling Green and Montgomery County are two of the better teams in the conference,” Sargent said. “On film, you can see how they execute and how they do things.”

Sargent said seven of his defensive players were quarantined and had to sit out against Montgomery County.

“They don’t have COVID-19,” the Wright City coach said. “It was contact tracing and they’re automatically out for 10 days. When you have that, it’s really hard to come up with a game plan for us to stay competitive.”

The Wildcats trailed 30-0 to Montgomery County at halftime. Montgomery County defeated Wright City for the fourth straight year.

“I feel this game would have been a little bit more competitive had we had our seven starters on defense,” Sargent said. “We had to get creative. I’m proud that the guys fought and I asked them to do a lot that I haven’t asked them in the past. We didn’t step up on the scoreboard, but they’re getting better. In two weeks, we will be back to full strength.”

Wright City had a chance to score in the closing seconds of the game, when it had the ball on Montgomery County’s 13-yard line. But senior Dalton Wiser was stopped at the 11-yard line as time expired.

Wiser and sophomore Jeremiah Davis have been the Wildcats’ top offensive performers this season, combining with six touchdowns.

“The cool thing about watching those guys is they’re really good friends off the field,” Sargent said. “Dalton works with Jeremiah after practice.”

Last year, Wright City finished 7-3 after getting just two wins in 2018. The Wildcats lost 21 players to graduation.

“We have more talent than we had last year,” Sargent said. “But the difference is the seniors are stronger and faster and they understand a little bit of the scheme of how to execute things. We’re a young team. We’re still learning and we’re learning each week. I love these guys and we’re going to go to battle with them, no matter what.”