Patriots Fall to Cross County in First Round of Playoffs
Launch the media gallery 1 playerBy: Kanyon Held, a sophomore at Leigh High School
The Patriot Football team traveled to Stromsburg on October 22 to face the Cross County Cougars for the second time this season, this time in the first round of the playoffs.
32 teams qualified for the Class D-1 football playoffs, 16 teams from the West, and 16 teams from the East. With a 4-4 record, the Patriots were the 15th seed in the East, and Cross County was 2nd.
It was a cold, uphill battle for the Patriots from the get-go. Cross County started the game off strong, scoring three rushing touchdowns in the first quarter and putting the two-point conversion in afterwards on two of them.
In the second quarter Cross County scored two more rushing touchdowns, and put the two point conversion in after one, making the score 36-0 Cross County going into halftime.
In the third quarter, the Patriots scored first off a 6-yd pass from quarterback Lance Paprocki to Carter Hanel. The Patriots failed to put the two-point conversion in afterward.
Cross County scored two more touchdowns in the third quarter and put the two-point conversion in afterwards on one of the touchdowns, making the score 6-50 going into the fourth quarter.
Cross County reached the end zone one more time in the fourth quarter but failed to put in the two-point conversion, ending the game 56-6 Cross County.
When asked about the game, freshman Dylan Higby said, “We came into the game with the mindset to play as hard as we could and leave everything we had on the field, but Cross County County was too much to handle.”
Coach Jim Clarkson said, “It was a tough game played in tough conditions; unfortunately we had many and were not able to overcome them against a very good team like Cross County. I am proud of our team on how they have handled adversity, and as tough of a year it was, I could not be prouder of the guys.”
The Patriots ended their season with a record of 4-5. They graduate five seniors, but look forward to the future of Patriot football.
Team 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter Final
Clarkson-Leigh 0 0 6 0 0
Cross County 22 14 14 6 56
Player Stats:
(rushing yds, passing yds, receiving yds, tackles, assisted tackles)
Eli Hays - 21, 0, 0, 0, 4 Kanyon Held - 0, 0, 0, 0, 4 Mason Whitmore - 0, 0, 0, 1, 0
Carter Hanel - 0, 0, 6, 2, 5 Mitchel Beeson - 0, 0, 0, 1, 4 Trevor Zulkoski - 0, 0, 0, 4, 1
Lance Paprocki - 25, 6, 0, 2, 3 Trey Steffensmier - 9, 0, 0, 0, 0 Garret Stodola - 2, 0, 0, 0, 0
Dylan Higby - 94, 0, 0, 1, 1 Jase Indra - 0, 0, 0, 0, 1 James Grotelueschen - 0, 0, 0, 0, 1
Ryan Brichacek - 6, 0, 0, 0, 0