The Montgomery County Wildcats had a chance to open their 2022 season with another victory over the Hermann Bearcats.

But Conner Coffey didn’t let that happen.

The Hermann senior running back scored three touchdowns, all of them in the first half, to lift his team to a 25-13 win over the Wildcats on Aug. 26 at Jim Blacklock Field.

Hermann took advantage of five MCHS turnovers to avoid losing to the Wildcats for the second straight year. Last year, the Wildcats beat the Bearcats 31-16 to snap an eight-game losing streak to Hermann.

“Hats off to Hermann,” MCHS coach John Klekamp said. “(Hermann) Coach (Andy) Emmons and his staff did a really good job. They just outplayed us physically.”

The Wildcats will play another home game on Sept. 2 against Monroe City. The Panthers began their season on Aug. 26 with a 48-8 win over Mark Twain.

“Monroe City is a really good football program in Missouri, so they’re going to be pretty tough for us to handle,” Klekamp said. “But all we can do is try to simplify what we’re attempting to do and try to get better.”

MCHS senior halfback Matt Clark said he’s confident his team will bounce back from the loss to Hermann.

“We have been practicing really hard for a week or two,” Clark said. “I know for a lot of guys, especially the older guys, it (the loss to Hermann) really stung. But we’re trying to remain together and remember that we have multiple weeks ahead of this.”

Seniors Brenden Luttrell and Travis Hill each scored a touchdown for the Wildcats. Luttrell tied the game at 7-7 after recovering a Hermann fumble and scoring a touchdown with 6:27 left in the first quarter. Hill scored a 46-yard touchdown catch with 5:09 to go in the second quarter to cut Hermann’s lead to 19-13.

Klekamp said he has high hopes for Luttrell and his twin brother, Dominic, who had a 19-yard catch in the first quarter.

“Both of those boys have been really good leaders for us from day one,” Klekamp said. “They’ll be a big part of our success.”

With his three touchdowns against MCHS, Coffey surpassed last year’s total of two. He scored a 17-yard touchdown run with 8:24 left in the first quarter to give the Bearcats a 7-0 lead, a 23-yard run with 30.9 seconds remaining in the first to break a 7-7 tie and a 46-yard run with 10:33 to go in the second that boosted Hermann’s lead to 19-7. Last year, Coffey had just nine yards rushing against the Wildcats.
The Bearcats increased their lead to 25-13 with a nine-yard touchdown run from Gavin Hackmann with 9:32 left in the fourth quarter.

MCHS was shut out in the second half. A year ago, the Wildcats stormed to a 20-0 halftime lead over the Bearcats.

“I don’t think we had a bad attitude and I don’t think we had a bad effort, but I do think that we got down on ourselves a little too much tonight,” Klekamp said. “I told the boys it’s really hard when you’re hard on yourself and down on yourself for you to accomplish really good things because you’re already thinking negatively about yourself. Those are some things that we have to overcome.”