Wildcats Win Home Opener

Written by: Cody Smith on Friday, September 1st, 2023. Follow Cody Smith on Twitter.

HALIFAX – The Halifax Wildcats rebounded in a big way Friday night as the team picked up a victory in its home opener against Midd-West by a final score of 40-0.

One week after opening the season with a 49-14 loss to Hamburg on the road, Coach Roy Wall was happy the team could bounce back so quickly and pick up a big win of its own.

“Our kids really picked it up after Hamburg last week,” said Wall. “The score last week wasn’t indicative of how we played. We had a couple turnovers, but our team really showed up to play. Our coaches really did a great job getting them ready.”

The Halifax offense scored early and often, taking its opening drive to the house for an early lead, something the team has accomplished in both of its games to open the season.

“That’s the second week in a row we’ve scored first,” said Wall of his team’s early-game success. “That’s been a thing for us so far and hopefully it continues to be.”

Halifax received the opening kickoff and drove the ball 70 yards on eight plays on a drive aided by Midd-West penalties, of which the Mustangs would commit nine of on the night.

Senior running back Isaac Miller capped off the drive with his first of two rushing touchdowns on the night. Miller led the Halifax ground attack, running the ball 19 times for 80 yards in the contest.

With an early 6-0 lead following a missed extra point, it was time for the Halifax defense to shine. On the second play of the drive, Curtis Conrad recovered a fumble to give the Wildcats a chance to go up by two scores early. Halifax converted, scoring on a broken play that polished off a seven-play drive.

In a 2^nd-and-goal situation at the Midd-West seven, sophomore quarterback Teegan Carroll called for the snap, but a bad snap caused the ball to roll back toward him on the ground. Without missing a beat, Carroll scooped up the ball, rolled right and found space to trot into the endzone for his first rushing score of the night.

Both he and Miller would combine for a solid 144 yards rushing on the night with a combined four rushing touchdowns.

Carroll added a pair of passing touchdowns in the game as well. On the first snap of the second quarter, Carroll rolled to his right and found senior wideout Peter Ranck who reached across the pylon for a receiving touchdown. Ranck ended up leading all receivers in the game with 85 total receiving yards to go along with his receiving touchdown.

Carroll’s second touchdown toss of the night came in the second half. With just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter facing a fourth-and-goal from the six-yard line, Carroll lobbed a pass into the back corner of the endzone where senior Mason Enders reached up and snagged the ball with one hand for the score.

Enders also added an interception in the game that would have been returned for a touchdown if not for an illegal block in the back that nullified the score.

All around it was a solid night for the Wildcats. The team looked great in all facets, something Coach Wall was proud of.

“I’m very proud of our kids,” said Wall. “We had a good scrimmage and then got pounded by Hamburg. I was hoping we wouldn’t start to see any bad habits, but we picked it up this week.”

“Everybody played to their potential tonight and we came into this game knowing we could beat them even though people didn’t think we could.” added Enders of the team’s overall performance. “We proved them wrong.”

The victory pushes Halifax’s record up to 1-1 on the season. The Wildcats are back on the road next Friday night as the team travels to Hancock (MD) (0-1) for a non-conference game across state lines.

Midd-West dropped to 0-2 overall with the loss and will host Milton (1-1) this coming Friday night.

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