MT. ORAB — Wilmington football coach Scott Killen was not in a jovial mood following his team’s 40-34 loss Friday to Western Brown in SBAAC American Division football at Kibler Stadium’s LaRosa’s Field.
“I’m not happy,” Killen said.
Killen lamented a couple of officiating calls that went against his Hurricane. The main miscue came when an inadvertent whistle stopped Thad Stuckey’s 47 yard touchdown return.
The Broncos had just scored to make it 31-28 early in the third quarter. The onside kick took several bounces then fell into Stuckey’s arms and he raced the distance to give WHS a much-needed score.
However, the ball was put back at the 47 where Stuckey grabbed it because, as Killen said, “inadvertent whistle.”
The ensuring drive had a big run by Kendal France wiped out by a holding penalty and then a Peyton Hibbard was picked off at the 1. Instead of being up 38-28, WHS led 31-28 and gave the ball to the Broncos who saddled up Cade Chisman and went on a 99-yard scoring drive to take the lead.
Wilmington was never the same after turn of events.
“It came down to … give credit to Western Brown for executing,” Killen said.
France was a a hammer and the WB defense the nail in this one. The WHS running back had 190 yards on 11 attempts with two touchdowns.
In all, WHS ran 361 yards. Stuckey had 114 on the ground.
“It wasn’t our game plan to run it,” said Killen. “We just kept running because they couldn’t stop us.”
Killen said France should have carried more than 11 times but because he played every snap on defense, he needed a rest. Stuckey and McCoy were effective, too.
Chisman finished with 216 rushing yards and three total touchdowns. Drew Novak was 21-31 passing for 377 yards. He was just 8-10 passing in the second half for 138 yards.
Chisman went wild in the third and fourth quarters after gaining just five yards on three first half rushes.
“That’s a pretty good offense,” said Killen.
It was a contrasting first half, to nobody’s surprise. Wilmington ran 27 times for 285 yards. France ran 7 times for 135 yards, including an 84 yard TD jaunt with 64 seconds to play in the first half to put WHS up 28-14.
Rotating runners by possessions, Wilmington had Stuckey with 95 first half rushing yards and Thane McCoy with 55 yards. Both scored touchdowns in the half.
On the Broncos side, Drew Novak threw it 21 times for 239 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers. The last of those scoring plays came with 30 seconds to go in the half and appeared to make it a one-score game going to the break.
But WHS took the kickoff and had a big 35-yard run by Stuckey to give Parker Henry a 30-yard field goal chance which was good and made it 31-21 WHS at the half.
SUMMARY
Sept 25, 2020
@Kibler Stadium, LaRosa’s Field
Western Brown 40, Wilmington 34
WB^7^14^13^6^^40
WI^14^17^0^3^^34
First quarter
WI: Kendal France 2 yard run (Parker Henry PAT) 9:10
WB: Dylan Novak 15 yard pass from Drew Novak (Evan Grimes PAT) 6:33
WI: Thad Stuckey 7 yard run (Parker Henry PAT) 1:04
Second quarter
WB: Cade Chisman 53 yard pass from Drew Novak (Evan Grimes PAT) 11:50
WI: Thane McCoy 6 yard run (Parker Henry PAT) 6:03
WI: Kendal France 84 yard run (Parker Henry PAT) 1:04
WB: Logan Campbell 44 yard pass from Drew Novak (Evan Grimes PAT) 0:30
WI: Parker Henry 30 yard field goal, 0:00
Third quarter
WB: Cade Chisman 10 yard run (Evan Grimes PAT) 10:05
WB: Cade Chisman 11 yard run (Kicked blocked) 4:52
Fourth quarter
WB: Gary Powell 5 yard pass from Drew Novak (PAT blocked) 6:40
WI: Parker Henry 28 yard field goal, 4:22
INDIVIDUALS
Rushing: NR-Chisman 33-216, Drew Novak 11-(-19); WHS-France 11-190, McCoy 10-57, Stuckey 15-114, Snell 1-0, Huffman 1-6, McEvoy 1-(-6)
Passing: NR-Drew Novak 21-31-0, 377; WHS-Hibbard 4-8-1, 50 yards; McEvoy 1-1-0, 12 yards
Receiving: NR-Chisman 3-65, Dylan Novak 5-123, Campbell 5-62, Powell 8-75, Blankenship 1-12; WHS-Huffman 1-13, Cody 3-44, Snell 1-5
