By JOHNNY RAY LAKE
Special to The Leader
The Carlisle Bison celebrated senior night by defeating the McCrory Jaguars 18-6 in the Bison’s final home game of the regular season.
Carlisle (9-0) (5-0) faced not only the state’s leading rusher in McCrory junior running back Logan Best, but also one of the toughest and biggest defensive lines they have seen all year. But the Bison defense played tougher, and Bison sophomore running back Bo Weddle put on a show of his own as he outperformed the top runner in the state.
The Bison defense set the tone for the game by recovering a fumble on the Jaguars’ opening drive of the game. After a quick three and out, the Bison defense once again flexed their muscles on the Jaguars’ second drive. On first and ten, Carlisle linebacker Deron Ricks put a vicious hit on Best for no gain, and two plays later the Jaguars were forced to punt.
On their second possession of the game, the Bison needed only five plays to go 76-yards for a score. Weddle capped off the drive with 25-yard touchdown run, breaking several tackles along the way.
At the end of the first quarter, Carlisle led 6-0. The Bison went for a two-point conversion, but were stopped short.
McCrory (6-3) (5-0) responded with a scoring drive of its own, going 61 yards in 11 plays. Jaguar fullback Cody Davis ran the final 14 yards hard up the middle, and the Jaguars were also unsuccessful on their two-point conversion try. With 10:43 left in the first half the game was tied at 6-6.
The Bison then recovered an onside kick attempt by McCrory, and began marching for another score. Carlisle reached the Jaguars’ 6-yard line, but penalties, an incompletion, and a sack on fourth down ended any hope of getting points on the drive. But the Bison defense would once again come through. On the Jaguars’ next possession, they had fourth and inches on the Bison 47-yard line.
Bison senior defensive lineman Clayton Fields broke through and made a big tackle on the Jaguar’s Davis as he tried to go up the middle. The Bison took over on offense with just under two minutes remaining in the half.
Carlisle needed three plays and just over a minute to put points on the board. After a penalty made it first down and 15 for the Bison, Weddle ran behind superb blocking, and then showed impressive speed to outrun the Jaguars defense for a 40-yard touchdown run with 47 seconds remaining in the half. The Bison again failed on their conversion try, and led 12-6 at the half.
The Bison dominated the second half on both sides of the ball. Weddle ran for another long touchdown run, as the final points of the game came on a 36-yard touchdown run. Again Weddle followed solid blocking to the right side of the line, then cut back across the middle of the field and raced to the left corner of the end zone for a highlight-reel run.
Zach King intercepted a pass on the next and final possession of the game for McCrory.
The Bison defense held best to 143 yards rushing on 22 carries, well below his average per game. McCrory was held to 192 rushing yards total, and completed only one of seven passes for 11 yards.
“We knew Logan Best was coming in running behind a massive offensive line,” Carlisle coach Scott Waymire said. “He is a tremendous rusher — the best runner we have faced this year, and our guys knew coming in that this was a good quality opponent.
“They run the ball in many different ways, and they like to spread you out and then run behind their huge offensive tackles. I thought we did a tremendous job of bending but not breaking on defense.”
Carlisle ran the ball 50 times for 373 yards, as Weddle led the way with 163 yards on 18 carries and all three of their touchdowns. Braxton Petrus and Deron Ricks both had 60 rushing yards, and Zach King added 82 yards rushing for the Bison.
The Bison will play at Hazen next week 6-2A Conference title.
“It does not matter if we are 9-0 or 0-9, records don’t matter in this game,” Waymire said. “If you have never been to a Carlisle-Hazen game, I can tell you it is a great, great game, and we don’t have to worry about kids on either side getting up for this game. I have been here at Carlisle for six years, and I think the atmosphere for this game tops any game in the state.”
