McLoud’s High School football suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Bethel Wildcats 41-34, after leading with five minutes to go.
McLoud, now 1-1 on the season, travels to rival Harrah Friday night with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Redskins’ Coach Rusty Hall said, “This is rival week. This is our big rivalry game and it will be packed out,” he thinks. He said Harrah, who defeated Bridge Creek last week, is 1-1.
Hall said of last week’s contest against Bethel, “We just didn’t finish the game. We led for most of the game,” he noted. “They took the lead with about 2 ½ minutes to go in the game.
“They scored two touchdowns in three minutes,” he said of the Wildcats. “One was on a long touchdown pass and the other was a long TD run. We were just out of position. We had trouble lining up,” Hall added.
Still, the Redskins had a chance to score in the final minute and a half. “We had the ball on the Bethel 25 yard line and Cue ran for eight or nine yards and fumbled,” Hall stated.
“That was the game of course,” he said. “We were right there. It was our only turnover of the game,” Hall continued.
Star junior running back Clint Campbell still isn’t back from a broken arm he suffered during a pre-season scrimmage. “Our chances for having him back for Friday night are slim. It will probably be another couple of weeks,” the coach believes.
“The other two did a great job,” Hall stressed.
Backup running back Kaiden Cue ran for 210 yards on 26 carries and scored three touchdowns. “The offense racked up nearly 400 yards (373),” Hall stated, noting, sophomore quarterback Kaden Carl threw for 123 yards that included a 32-yard touchdown strike to receiver Rylan Hall-Norton.
“The offense played pretty well,” the coach commented.
“Defensively, we also scored two TD’s. Cue had a 60-yard TD run following an interception and Caiden Mitchell had a lateral pass he picked up off the turf, scampering 35 yards for a score,” Hall said.
“We just had mental busts. The linebacker didn’t get lined up right,” he said.