Last second field goal caps wild win for ’Cats

Last year, in Newcastle, Luke Roddy had a chance to be a hero, but an overtime field goal sailed wide right, and the Wildcat football team lost a 15-14 heartbreaker to the Dogies in Wyoming.

This year, Roddy was on the good side of the uprights.

Roddy booted a 25-yard field goal as time expired last Friday night at Wildcat field, giving Custer a 15-12 season opening victory, erasing last year’s bad memory and getting Custer’s season off on the right foot—literally.

Roddy was immediately mobbed by his teammates, and after the game a beaming Roddy said he knew the kick was good the moment it left his foot.

“It’s a good feeling,”â��he said of kicking the game-wining field goal. “It felt a little better than last year.”

While Roddy provided the late-game heroics, it was a complete team effort that brought Custer the win in a game that was so wild it could have been played under a big top. There were penalties, turnovers, two onside kicks,  two inadvertant whistles and enough back-and-forth drama to keep even the most calm person needing an oxygen bag.

“I’ve coached some weird ones, and I’ve been on both sides of it as far as wins and losses,”â��Custer head coach Russ Bailey said.â��“But, I’ve never been a part of a game where you go for almost 500 yards of total offense and only score three times.”

The turning point of the game came in the fourth quarter, when a Dogie touchdown was halted because of one of the inadvertant whistles. On a fourth down play in Custer territory, Dogie quarterback Trey Sulte’s pass bounced off the leg of his intended teammate abd caromed into the waiting arms of Dogie receiver Travis Garhart, who would have waltzed into the end zone untouched. However, one of the side judges whistled the play dead as the carom was happening, negating the Dogie touchdown.

“I’ve had those go against me too. It’s one of those things you look at and say ‘we dodged a bullet,’ but you create your own breaks,”â��Bailey said. “There are a lot of calls that could have gone both ways. It feels nice to be on the positive end of a call like that.”

On the very next play after a long delay caused by the confusion of the inadvertant whistle, Wildcat running back Brandon Smith took the hand off from Roddy, broke several tackles and raced up the middle of the field for an 80-yard touchdown to tie the game at 12-12.

Smith ran like a full-grown man in the second half, as the Dogies needed three and four defenders to bring him down each time he touched the ball. He ended the game with 281 yards rushing on 35 carries, the vast majority of which came in the second half when he was running over, around and through Dogie defenders.

“He’s had it in him. Last year there were so many situations where we couldn’t get him going,” Bailey said of Smith’s big game. “Finally, it just kind of clicked and he got some holes.”

Custer scored first in the game in the first quarter, when a 44-yard run by Smith set up an 11-yard touchdown run by sophomore Dylan Severyn. The Wildcats went for two and failed, making the score 6-0.

However, on the ensuing kickoff, Dogie running back Jeremy Beehler took the ball, broke three initial tackles and raced up the field for a 90-yard touchdown, tying the game back up at 6-6. Beehler was a one-man show for the Dogies, later putting Newcastle ahead after fighting off a Custer defender to reel in a short pass and turn it into a 90-yard touchdown reception after outrunning the Wildcat defense down the field.

“He had a good game, but you take away the one pass and one kick and I thought we did a great job of shutting him down,”â��Bailey said. “Part of it is we kept the ball offensively. You have to limit the amount of times a kid like that can touch the ball.”

 The Wildcats had a balanced attack all game long, as they ground out over 300 yards rushing in the game while Roddy completed 13 of 25 passing attempts for 152 yards, 122 of which were hauled in by Chad Bryant on 11 catches. Bryant also had a touchdown called back on a questionable penalty. All told, the Wildcats dominated the time of possession and had a two-to-one advantage on plays from scrimmage.

The team will take a 1-0 record into a bye week this weekend, before getting back into action Sept. 10 with another home game against the Douglas Patriots, who were destroyed by St. Thomas More by the no, it’s not an error score of 72-6 last week.

Bailey said the team will spend the bye week polishing most aspects of the game, especially special teams and the offensive line assignments.

“We have to get better up front offensively. We need to get to the point we step up to line of scrimmage and know exactly what we’re going to do. Then it’s just a matter of going hard,” he said. “We have to use this week to get to a point where we have absolutely no doubt what’s happening on the field.”

Custer 6 0 0 9 —15

Newcastle 6 0 6 0 —12

Rushing: Custer—Brandon Smith 35-281, Dylan Severyn 8-35.

Passing: Custer—Luke Roddy 12-23, 152 yards.

Receiving: Custer—Chad Bryant 11-122, Alex Heaton 1-35.