Wildcats even record with rout of Phillips
By Staff
Mike Self FCT Sports Editor
The Tharptown Wildcats evened their season record at 3-3 on Tuesday with a 34-6 victory over Phillips in a junior varsity game at Bear Creek.
The Wildcats got off to a fast start, racing out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter.
They led 28-0 at the half and then cruised to the win.
Tharptown has now scored 62 points in its last two games.
The Wildcats lost to St. Bernard 42-28 last Friday.
"The offense is really clicking right now," Wildcat coach Dale Overton said. "The kids are starting to understand what we want to do. We like to spread the field. We're not necessarily in a hurry-up, but we don't go to the huddle every time and we really want to set the tempo and control the clock.
"The past three games, we've been getting six or seven yards on first down. We're doing a much better job running the football, and that's opening up a lot of things in the passing game. Tyler [Cagle] has completed about 80 percent of his passes over the past three games."
Cagle attempted just three passes on Tuesday but completed two of them, including a 50-yard touchdown to Manny Ricardo.
Cagle also rushed for 92 yards and a score on eight carries.
Running backs Trevor Hallmark and Clay Scott both had big games for Tharptown.
Hallmark went over 100 yards for the second straight week, finishing with 105 and two touchdowns on 12 carries.
Scott added 65 yards on seven attempts.
Jacob Parker had a 20-yard touchdown run.
Hallmark and Jarrod Seay each had 10 tackles to lead the Wildcats defensively.
Tharptown will be off until next Thursday's game at Mt. Hope, a team the Wildcats defeated 24-20 earlier this season.
"I hope that we can maintain our physical play with so many days off between games," Overton said. "You want to be physical at practice, but it's hard to do that when you don't have a lot of players and you're worried about keeping everybody healthy."