In football, red signifies when the offense needs to go or finish drives. Montgomery County wasn’t able to do that late on Oct. 14 in its 42-38 loss to North Callaway.

The Wildcats were coming off their first two victories of the season and responded to the Thunderbirds for much of the night, but two red-zone drives stalled when they couldn’t convert on fourth down.

“Red zone offense hurt us in the second half,” MCHS coach John Klekamp said. “We’ve got to convert. If we convert one of them, we win the football game. It’s not for a lack of trying or anything like that. They made some plays when they needed to make plays.”

Up to that point, MCHS’ defense forced five turnovers, three of which led to touchdowns, and the Wildcats’ passing game burned the Thunderbirds (6-2 overall, 5-1 EMO) throughout the night. Quarterback Adam Czerniewski threw for 235 yards on 18-for-32 passing and completed two touchdown passes to Travis Hill, who accumulated 93 yards on eight catches. Jacer Brower finished with 89 yards on four receptions.

Czerniewski found Brower for 31 yards and later Hill for 19 yards in the front left corner of the end zone to make it 42-36 North Callaway. Two points were tacked on by a safety because of an intentional grounding penalty to make it 42-38 after three quarters.

The Wildcats (2-6 overall, 2-4 EMO) were still able to find their targets to sustain drives as they marched all the way down to the North Callaway three-yard line only for the drive to stall. MCHS would get a second chance after its defense forced quarterback Braydn O’Neal to roll to his right and throw an interception to Bishop. From the 21-yard line, Czerniewski and the Wildcats took shots at the end zone, with the final one intended for Dominic Luttrell going too far out of bounds on the right side.

The Wildcats sacked O’Neal five times, one each from James Pollard, Matthew Clark, Harrison Bishop, Gunner Sexton and a combined one from Bryson Hoffman and Ben Rajchart.

The defense is what gave the Wildcats chances to win the game late as Klekamp acknowledged the “busted coverages” that helped O’Neal throw for 243 yards and four touchdowns and run for 100 yards with a TD, but its style of defense came through in big moments, too.

“We play an aggressive style, so sometimes that stuff is going to happen,” Klekamp said. “But we did what we wanted to do defensively. We just gave up too many points.”

Klekamp said not being able to score at least four more points is tough to swallow because of the effort his team had all night. Luttrell ran for a 64-yard touchdown after the Wildcats fell behind 14-0. Jace Ellis returned a fumble 64 yards for a touchdown following a 22-6 deficit. When MCHS was down 28-14, it tied the score before halftime.

Brower beat the North Callaway secondary up the middle for 43 yards to eventually set up a Mason Leu touchdown run. Then, Hill caught his first touchdown on a 20-yard pass in the closing seconds of the first half.

Besides making an unbelievable catch for the touchdown that made it 42-36 North Callaway in the third quarter, Hill was also the one that gave the Wildcats possession of the ball after snagging an interception in which he leaped several feet off the ground near the goal line.

“Travis has struggled at times this season,” Klekamp said. “Tonight, he was huge. He’s an incredible football player.”
MCHS wraps up its regular season on Oct. 15 at home against South Callaway (4-4, 3-3 EMO).