Smith emerges in Cashion comeback

Cashion had a small portion of its game plan that included sophomore Kellen Smith at quarterback.

By necessity, that portion greatly expanded on Friday and the Wildcats may have found their QB of the future.

Smith engineered two fourth quarter touchdown drives to help the Wildcats erase what was once a 23-point deficit to stun Hennessey 29-26 in the season opener for both teams.

The game winner came with 1:43 to play when Drew Westerhoff punched it in from 6 yards out to cap a nine-play, 80-yard drive.

That was the second 80-yard drive of the fourth quarter after Hennessey had moved its lead to 26-15 on a 29-yard field goal by Luis Macias-Montoya with 31 seconds to go in the third quarter.

The Wildcats answered with a seven-play drive that featured some gashing runs before Smith hit Maxx Higdon with a 39-yard touchdown on a play action.

Cashion coach Lynn Shackelford planned to use Smith at quarterback sporadically this season to allow Ethan Waswo the opportunity to benefit the Wildcats elsewhere.

However, Waswo injured his knee while blocking in the first quarter and didn’t return.

“We had some things we thought we could do with Kellen, but we had this whole game plan with Ethan,” Shackelford said. “But after Ethan went down, we basically said ‘Well, you’re going to have to figure it out.’

“And he did a great job.” Smith threw for 172 yards and a touchdown and added 159 rushing yards on just eight attempts.

All of it was needed. Hennessey, coming off a one-win season, was the early aggressor.

The Eagles were effective on the ground and through the air early and built a three-score lead.

The first came when freshman Hagan Copeland hauled in a 40-yard touchdown pass from Gunnar Holder with 5:44 to go in the first.

It was Copeland’s first touch as a varsity player.

The Eagles went to the ground and saw Braedyn Richardson score on a 2-yard run at 9:39 of the second quarter.

Jessin Hardin ran in twopoint conversions after both scores to make it 16-0.

It swelled to 23-0 when Hunter Weber caught a 21-yard strike from Holder with 6:19 to play in the half.

Then, finally for Cashion, the momentum started to turn.

Smith engineered a long touchdown drive, capping it with a 3-yard scoring run with 2:20 left in the half.

“That was really big,” Shackelford said. “We needed something positive to happen.”

Shackelford said in the preseason he was curious when the “switch would flip” for his younger players and the mental aspect would catch up to their growing physical aspect.

“Physically we look like a high school football team now. It was going to come down to how long it would take us mentally to figure out we can play,” Shackelford said.

“After we scored and then got a stop, I think you could start to see it in our guys and we really got some momentum going.”

Cashion also switched back to its normal 3-3-5 defense in the second half, which Shackelford said he felt was key.

“It made them more one dimensional and our guys just looked more comfortable,” he said.

Hennessey scored just three points in the second half.

Cashion closed the gap to 23-14 when Westerhoff scored his first TD of the game at 5:46 of the third.

Macias-Montoya’s field goal allowed the Eagles to take a nine-point lead into the fourth.

It’s a lead the Eagles couldn’t hold.

“That’s a point of emphasis for us right now,” Eagle coach Mark Cox said. “It’s a game that we had a great chance to win, but one thing that’s tough to overcome is the guys are still figuring out how to win late.”

“Hats off to Cashion because they played their tails off, but we have to learn how to win.”

Cox said conditioning also affected his team. Several Eagles were cramping in the second half.

“I take that personally because I have to do a better job of getting them prepared,” he said. “Part of my job is to educate them on the importance of hydration and proper nutrition, but we’ve got to condition better going forward.”

Cashion’s ground game took over in the final two drives.

Smith, Westerhoff and Rival Fields broke off chunk runs, which help set up the first TD of the fourth quarter.

“We just started gashing them and then in that last drive, we just had so much momentum,” Shackelford said.

The Cashion win spoiled a stellar showing by Holder.

The senior was 21 of 31 for 269 yards and two TDs.

He found eight different receivers, led by Kevin Trillo’s seven receptions for 47 yards.

Weber, playing his first varsity game, caught five passes for 78 yards.

Richardson ran for 76 yards on 14 carries to lead a Hennessey attack that produced 103 on the ground after averaging just over 30 yards last season.

“That was a positive because we weren’t productive in the run game at all last year,” Cox said. “We wanted better balance this year and it’s something we’ve talked about as a team.”

Brandon Rodriguez had 13 tackles to lead the Eagles while Hardin collected eight.

Kaleb Duran led Cashion’s defense with 10 stops.

“I thought he was really solid for us,” Shackelford said of the senior.

Westerhoff nearly joined Smith in garnering triple digits on the ground. His 20 carries produced 99 yards. Fields had 46 yards on his five attempts.

“Our offensive line did a really good job allowing us to move the ball on the ground,” Shackelford said.

Smith hit five different receivers, led by Higdon’s seven catches for 118 yards.

“He played incredible for a kid who’s never played QB before in a varsity game and who has had to split time in practice,” said Shackelford.

The severity of Waswo’s injury wasn’t known at press time. An MRI was scheduled for Tuesday.

For now, the Wildcats move forward with Smith, but also with the growing confidence of pulling off a dramatic win.

Like Hennessey, Cashion had a losing record a year ago and is also in the building process.

“Learning to win is hard if you haven’t done it before,” Shackelford said. “So to see the guys start to figure it out in the course of the game was really rewarding to see.

“We hope it’s something we’re able to continue to build on.”