Cavaliers dominate McClain on senior night

The old saying that you can’t judge a book by its cover was exactly how some people felt about Chillicothe Friday night whey came to Greenfield winless on the season with an 0-7 record.

But after the final horn sounded, it was the Cavaliers, behind the strong running by their talented freshman tailback Cartae Ligon, who showed this to be true after posting a 40-7 victory over the Tigers on senior night for McClain.

“Cartae (Ligon) is a good back,” said McClain head coach Keith Penwell. “He’s just a freshman, and he’s going to be pretty special.”

It was a special performance by him Friday night in Greenfield, when he ran for 175 yards on 20 carries and scored two first-quarter touchdowns. The game was also marred by penalties on both teams, with McClain having 13 miscues for 104 yards and the Cavaliers had 12 penalties for 100 yards.

“We were just very undisciplined tonight,” Penwell said “Jumping offsides, receivers jumping, linemen jumping, end-of-play penalties, face mask penalties.

“We get them in third down situations, then get a penalty to give them a first down, and you can’t do that.”

Chillicothe took the opening kickoff and wasted little time to score when Ligon ran 69 yards on the Cavaliers’ second offensive snap, just 53 seconds into the start of the game.

The Tigers went three-and-out on its offensive series and punted back to the Cavaliers, and this time Chillicothe used a 13-play drive to go 65 yards and score on a 3-yard run by Ligon. The two-point extra point try failed, and it was 12-0 Chillicothe, which is how the first quarter ended.

McClain was able to move the ball some on its second offensive series, but penalties forced another Tigers punt after they had moved into the Cavaliers’ side of the field.

Things looked good for McClain at this point when Chillicothe mishandled the kick and the Tigers recovered the fumble on the Cavaliers’ 14-yard line. But a bad snap and another penalty moved the ball backward to force a field goal attempt, which was unsuccessful, ending a golden scoring opportunity for the Tigers.

Chillicothe added their third touchdown of the first half moments later when Juan Miller hauled in a 49-yard scoring catch, and after a converted PAT it was 19-0 Cavaliers with 9:21 still remaining in the second period.  Chillicothe closed out the scoring in the opening half with a 30-yard field goal by Conner Bolin with just 55 seconds left.

Things went from bad to worse for the Tigers to begin the third quarter when Chillicothe recovered a fumble on a bad snap on the first play. Cannon Smith scored on Chillicothe’s next offensive play with a 30-yard touchdown run down the McClain sidelines, and the rout was on, 28-0.

The Cavaliers increased their lead to 34-0 with just 2:48 left in the third on a 15-yard run by Miller, his second TD of the game.

With the over-30 running clock rule in effect, the Tigers finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter when senior quarterback Cohen Six sneaked the ball over from one yard out. It culminated an impressive 13-play drive that went for 75 yards, highlighted by back-to-back first down runs by senior tailback Riley Cummins, who was filling in for starting tailback Owen Sykes, who suffered a concussion early in the first quarter.

“Injuries change games, and when someone like Owen Sykes goes out, it really changes what you can do,” Penwell said.

Cummins led the Tigers in rushing with five rushes for 38 yards and also had a reception for 10 yards. Also finishing with double-digit rushing numbers was Hudson Lovett with two rushes for 23 yards.

Chillicothe scored the final touchdown of the game on an unbelievable 71-yard run by freshman Noah Bowling, who broke a tackle in the backfield and zig-zagged his way to the end zone. The Cavaliers finished the game with 441 yards of total offense to just 133 for McClain.

“We had a ton of missed tackles defensively tonight,” Penwell said. “You can’t expect to wrap up a good back and hold on thinking he’s not going to push out. He just ran through arm tackles.

“I thought offensively we didn’t do the right things, we didn’t block the right assignments, it was just like we weren’t thinking out there.”

Other offensive leaders for MHS were Conner McCune (one reception for 19 yards), Jordan Bell (one reception for 12 yards) and Zane Adams (one reception for 10 yards). Isaac Morgan had two kickoff returns for 53 yards.

On defense, Tristan Dowden made two sacks for the Tigers. Bell was the tackles leader with four. Hayden Cornell made three and half tackles, and with three tackles was Noah Sponcil.

“We’ve got to get back to work and try to get better,” Penwell said. “I’ll put this all on me and I’ll take the blame, but we just have to be more disciplined and more physical.”

McClain (0-3, 1-7) travels to Washington (2-1, 2-6) next Friday, Oct. 18 before closing out the regular season at Hillsboro (1-2, 3-5) on Oct. 25 in the battle for the Rotary Bowl.

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