Patriots Fall to Cross County in Season Opener
By: Kanyon Held, a senior at Leigh High School
The Clarkson-Leigh Patriot football team traveled to Stromsburg on Friday, August 27 to face the Cross County Cougars for their week one matchup. The Cougars came into the game ranked #2 in the state with a record of 1-0.
Both teams came to play, going back and forth in the first quarter. No team was able to reach the end zone until the Patriots started a long drive toward the end zone late in the quarter.
Right at the start of the second quarter, Clarkson-Leigh was able to take an early lead after Junior Kyle Kasik punched in a 2-yd rushing touchdown. Carter Hanel followed it up, catching a pass from Eli Hays to tack on two more points to the Patriots’ score.
Cross County didn’t take long to answer back, scoring on a 29 yd passing touchdown. With a failed 2-point conversion, the Patriots still held the lead.
Toward the end of the first half the Cougars added 8 more points to their total after a 25-yd rushing touchdown and a successful two-point attempt, making the score 14-8 Cougars going into halftime.
Coming out of halftime, Cross County added on to their total with a 2-yd rushing touchdown and another successful two-point attempt. The Patriots answered back after senior Eli Hays broke off a 65-yd rushing touchdown. After a failed two-point attempt, Clarkson-Leigh had it back to a one-possession game.
Cross County came back at the end of the third quarter scoring on a 4-yd rushing touchdown with a successful two-point conversion making the score 28-14 Cross County going into the fourth quarter.
Cross County scored first in the fourth quarter off a 7-yd rushing touchdown with a failed two-point conversion. Clarkson-Leigh also added to their total after Hays ran in a 1-yd rushing touchdown and threw to Hanel for a successful two-point conversion.
Cross County came back one more time, scoring a 5-yd rushing touchdown and adding on another two point-conversion. The final score of the game was 22-42, in favor of the Cougars.
When asked about the game, assistant coach Jeff Bachman said, “I was impressed with the heart shown by our guys. We made too many mistakes against a good team to pick up a win.”
Kasik, a junior at Leigh, said, “For the first game of the season, we played well. Cross County was a very solid team. Now we have to fix the little things and continue to get better every week.”
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
Clarkson-Leigh 0 8 6 8 22
Cross County 0 14 14 14 42
Player Stats:
(rushing yds, passing yds, receiving yds, tackles, assisted tackles)
Eli Hays - 161, 42, 0, 5, 2; Kanyon Held - 0, 0, 0, 2, 8; Mason Whitmore - 0, 0, 11, 1, 0; Carter Hanel - 4, 0, 16, 3, 7; Mitchel Beeson - 0, 0, 0, 2, 3; Kyle Kasik - 58, 0, 25, 4, 3; Trey Steffensmeier - 6, 0, 0, 0, 0; Drew Beeson - 0, 0, 0, 6, 9; Dylan Higby - 23, 0, 0, 3, 5; Jackson Koehn - 0, 0, 0, 0, 1