Cashion shut down in opener

Lynn Shackelford had stunted his expectations entering Cashion’s season opener.

The youthful Wildcats were on the road Friday against a Rejoice Christian team that had defeated much more experienced versions of Cashion each of the last two years.

That streak for the Eagles is now three in a row after last Friday’s 59-0 blitzing of the visiting Wildcats.

Rejoice out-gained Cashion 351-136 as the Eagles’ Cale Marley threw three TD passes and ran for two more.

Cashion isn’t far removed from its best stretch in program history, which culminated with back-to-back state titles in 2020 and 2021.

However, every major contributor from those teams is gone, leaving Shackelford and his staff to field a lineup with a wide variety of underclassmen on both sides of the ball.

“It was good for our freshmen and sophomores who haven’t played in a varsity game to get one under their belt,” Shackelford said.

“Hopefully they’ll realize that it’s not the worst thing ever.”

Marley got things started with a 23-yard touchdown run.

The Wildcats were able to threaten on their possession, but Josh Hendricks picked off Ethan Waswo and took it 99 yards for a two-score lead.

The Eagles led 20-0 after a quarter and 42-0 at halftime.

A sophomore, Waswo’s first start saw him complete 6 of 15 passes for 75 yards. He was picked off four times.

He ran the ball for 26 yards and Rival Fields for 20, but Rejoice limited the Wildcats to 1.9 yards per carry.

Maxx Higdon led the receivers with three catches for 50 yards.

Austin Compton, Timmy Jones and Aidan Riordan had four tackles apiece.