Offensive woes slow Tiger Cubs in loss to Vikings

Greencastle played another strong defensive game Friday night at Harbison Stadium, holding West Vigo to just 87 yards rushing and 117 passing, while coming up with three turnovers. But it wasn’t enough to win.

After three quarters of scoreless football, West Vigo scored twice in the fourth quarter to hand the Tiger Cubs their first loss of the season, 14-0, in the opening Western Indiana Conference contest for both teams.

“When you add (the first half and second half) up 87 yards total rushing is a pretty good defensive game. But unfortunately it wasn’t good enough because we can’t move the football, we can’t put points on the board and that’s what we’re struggling with right now. You combine that with turnovers and penalties and we’re really looking very undisciplined and we’re going to struggle. We’ve got to regroup,” Greencastle coach Mike Meyer said.

Greencastle — using three different quarterbacks in Alex Costin, Brayden Baxter and Abe Wade — managed 130 yards of total offense, 49 rushing and 81 passing yards. The three quarterbacks threw two interceptions and the Tiger Cubs also lost a fumble. Plus, the Tiger Cubs were whistled for seven penalties.

“I don’t know if it was turnovers. We just couldn’t move the football. We’re going to look at the stats. (West Vigo) didn’t do anything until the last part of the fourth and we didn’t do anything the entire game,” Meyer said.

After winning the coin toss, Greencastle elected to receive the kickoff. On the second play the Tiger Cubs lost a fumble to the Vikings.

The Tiger Cubs’ defense forced the Vikings to punt the ball back after Cade Winslow and Hayden Pettit dropped the quarterback for a three-yard loss. West Vigo didn’t have a first down until the last three minutes of the first half.

In the second period, Gavin Bollman hit the West Vigo quarterback on the release and Brayden Bollman came up with the interception. But the Tiger Cubs couldn’t take advantage and the first half ended in a scoreless tie.

West Vigo got the ball to open the second half, but didn’t have it long. Jacob Meyer forced the Vikings’ quarterback to fumble and Trevor Wood recovered the loose ball. Three plays later Greencastle’s Costin punted the ball away.

The Tiger Cubs’ best scoring opportunity came with 7:09 left in the third period. Winslow made his second fumble recovery of the game to give the Tiger Cubs possession at the West Vigo 22-yard line. Three plays yielded just three yards and coach Meyer sent Evan Crowe on to try a 36-yard field goal. The kick was wide left.

The game was still scoreless going into the fourth quarter. But West Vigo intercepted a Greencastle pass on the first play of the period and with 11:46 on the clock the Vikings’ Jarret McCalister found an open spot in the Tiger Cubs’ secondary and scored on a 44-yard pass play.

West Vigo 0 0 0 14 — 14

Greencastle 0 0 0 0 — 0

WV — Jarret McCalister 44 pass from Jake Lautenschlager (Sean Beaver kick), 7-0, 11:46 Q4.

WV — Lautenschlager 1 run (Beaver kick), 14-0, 5:16 Q4.

WV G

First downs 10 6

Rushes-yards 30-87 26-49

Passing yards 117 81

Comp-Att-Int 7-19-2 9-16-2

Total offense 49-204 42-130

Return yards 49 48

Punts-Avg. 4-32.5 5-25.2

Fumbles-lost 3-2 4-1

Penalties-yards 4-50 7-52

Individual statistics

Rushing – West Vigo: J. McCalister 12-48, Berkley 6-23, K. McCalister 6-16, Hannahs 2-5, Andrews 1-(-3), Lautenschlager 3-(-2). Greencastle: Fajt 18-56, Costin 1-10, Campbell 2-5, Buttery 1-(-5), Baxter 5-(-17).

Passing – West Vigo: Andrews 1-8-0, Lautenschlager 6-11-1. Greencastle: Baxter 6-10-1, Wade 1-1-0, Costin 2-5-1.

Receiving – West Vigo: J. McCalister 2-44, Berkley 2-30, L. Stevens 1-15, Nuttall 1-15, Stroud 1-2. Greencastle: Campbell 3-27, Meyer 2-26, Bollman 2-21, Wade 1-5, Costin 1-2.

Next game – Next Friday, West Vigo (2-1, 1-0 in WIC West) travels to Northview and Greencastle (2-1, 0-1 in WIC West) travels to South Putnam.