JV football secures first victory

by Dillon Cooper

The long search and rescue for a meaningful win to validate all of the hard work finally came through as the JV Wildcats beat the North Adams-Jerome Rams, 14-6!

The game was muggy but the Wildcats looked confident and ready to play. All throughout calisthenics the Wildcats were making their presence known. NA-J was also ready for the game but didn’t seem as excited about the game as Pittsford. NA-J won the coin flip and got the ball first. The ‘Cats’ defense was fierce and, as they say, offense wins games and defense wins championships; lately, however, the Wildcat offense hadn’t been winning much games.

The defense for the Wildcats would hold stiff and force a three-and-out. Freshman Cyle Brown was deep to return but fumbled the ball when he tried to return it. The Rams recovered and had great field position. Luckily Pittsford’s defense would hold the Rams again. The Wildcats would receive the ball and move it down but then, just like the Rams’ offense, stalled completely out. The Rams would get the ball but in a matter of no time the Wildcats’ freshman linebacker, Drew Herman, picked off a NA-J pass. “That was a huge point in the game,” said Herman. “I had a feeling before the game that I was going to have an interception or something really big.” This INT would set up a Wildcat touchdown within two big plays. Brown would score on a play that was keyed by the offensive line. Time fell off the clock like stocks fell down on the stock market. It wasn’t until sophomore running back Kyle Wyatt broke free and ran for an important overpowering touchdown that was a dark cloud that seemed to loom over the Rams. This would give Pittsford a 14-0 lead at the end of a thriving first half for the ‘Cats.

The Wildcats would receive the ball to start the second half and would start off very slowly, almost like they were stuck in concrete. Later in the third the Rams would drive down the field and score and try and go for two, but failed on a run right up the gut. The Wildcats would get their act together as the sophomore leaders rattled the boys up again and they seemed to possess the energy needed to repeat a great performance that had led them to a dominant first half. The Wildcats would be stopped and would be forced to punt the football to the now-motivated Rams. The Rams drove the ball down and weren’t stopped until sophomore Dillon Cooper pushed through the NA-J line for a tackle-for-loss. The Wildcats would hold them to a three and out but now they would have to play one more play, possibly the biggest play of the game. It was 4th and 32 and everyone knew exactly what the Rams were going to do--pass! The ball would fall incomplete and it would be turned over to the Wildcats who would decide to run the football until the time on the scoreboard read goose eggs.

The game was much closer than one would first think, but what would you expect from a team that finally received a win in a much-anticipated game. The Wildcats will look to extend their winning ways. “This is the game that will start our 6-0 run and let us finish 6-3,” said assistant coach Mr. Hodos. Freshman Jimmy Lafollette added that he was finally happy at the end of a game. “When we first scored I knew we were going to win and it felt good,” freshman Zak Schaedler would later say. The Pittsford Wildcats definitely could sigh in relief. “The first win is always the hardest,” said Wyatt. P-ford will not have it so easy in the next couple of weeks, but they will still face teams that, like themselves, hadn’t won a game.