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Tiger Cubs fall in opener
ELLETTSVILLE -- The Greencastle Tiger Cubs varsity football team opened its second season in IHSAA Sectional 29 at Edgewood Friday evening. The Cubs came in with a 3-6 regular season mark, having won 3 of their last 4 games. The hosts finished 8-1, their lone loss was to the Northview Knights.
The Mustangs won 36-13, advancing to round two next week at Western Boone.
Greencastle won the coin toss and elected to defer, putting first-year head coach Ryan Spoonmore's defense on the field. Edgewood's powerful running game got off to a slow start as it couldn't budge the Tiger Cubsdefensive line.
After one stop for a loss and two no gains, the Mustangs were forced to punt.
"We did what we wanted to do on that opening drive. Our defense wanted to be on the field to start the game, so we deferred. It was a great start to the game," Spoonmore said.
Greencastle took over one its own 47-yard line, and on their first play from scrimmage, sophomore quarter back Nick Costin's pass was intercepted by Edgewood's senior linebacker Gabe Koontz.
Edgewood's second drive of the game ended with 55 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Zack Harrison to Rhett Blake. Following an off side penalty by Greencastle, Edgewood went for two to put the host up 8-0 with 8:34 to go in the opening quarter.
The first quarter ended with the Mustangs up 8-0, and the ball on Greencastle's 24-yard line. Harrison put his squad up 14-0 at the 10:31 mark with an 18-yard TD pass to senior receiver Austin Smith. Kicker Luke Stillions added the extra point to put his squad up 15-0.
Edgewood got a third score when Harrison ran around left end for a 9-yard scamper, the kick by Stillions was good, putting the Mustangs up 22-0 with 4:45 to play in the first half. Following the kickoff, the Tiger Cubs started with a first-and-10 on their 44-yard line.
Four plays and 55 yards later, Costin capped the drive, finding senior wide receiver Nathan Tesmer for a 22-yard touchdown pass. The extra point kick from Sedrick Weinschenk made the score 22-7, the game's score at the half.
The second half started with Greencastle having the ball to start and saw a quarterback change with senior Calvin Hughes taking over for Costin. On the opening drive, Zach Secrest picked up five yards before a third down loss of one, forcing a fourth down punt. Edgewood took the drive and scored on a Harrison 19-yard TD pass to Terry Wiess. The Stillions kick was good to make the score 29-7 with 6:27 to go in the quarter.
Greencastle got a 36-yard interception return by sophomore Devon Clar with 47 seconds to play in the third quarter to send the game into the final quarter with the score of 29-13.
In the final quarter Edgewood, got a one-yard run from Gabe Koontz, who finished the game with 120 yards on 22 carries. He also added a two-point conversion in the opening quarter.
Elijah Willliams led the Greencastle defense with two sacks and several tackles. Chandler Hyten had six carries for 37 yards to lead Greencastle's runners.
After the game, Spoonmore was pleased with his defense in the game's opening drive and liked where his team was at the half.
"We did the things we wanted to do," Spoonmore said. "This group wanted to start on defense and we stopped their running game in the first drive of the game. At the half even though we were down we were still in it. We just couldn't sustain things and with a few breaks it could have been 8-7 at the half".
With the finish to the regular season and his team winning 3 of their last 4 games ,the first year skipper said it was something to build on.
"Were a young team and after our slow start we finished strong. It's something we can build on this off season."
Edgewood travels to Western Boone next Friday night for round two of the IHSAA Class 3A sectional.