Wyoming grinds out CHL win

CLEVES, Ohio – For any future opponents of the Wyoming Cowboys, stopping one player will definitely be in their game plans – running back Joel Hancock.

Whether or not opponents will be able to do that against one of Cincinnati’s top running backs, however, is a different story.

That’s  what the Taylor Yellowjackets attempted to do Friday night at home  against their Cincinnati  Hills League rivals, but came up just a little short as Wyoming moved to  5-0 on  the season by grinding out a 35-26 victory, with Hancock leading the way with 194 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

The first quarter started out with some quick fireworks, as Wyoming’s defense forced Taylor three and out on their opening possession, then saw the Wyoming offense take over on the Taylor  38-yard-line after a partially-blocked punt. The Cowboys took over at the Taylor  38 after the punt, and two carries by Hancock net 10  yards. Then Wyoming went to the air, as QB David Dupee hit wideout Billy Lyons in stride for a 27-yard touchdown pass. The extra point was good, and the Cowboys were off to a 7-0 lead with 9:15 left in the first quarter.

The Yellowjackets responded to the early strike, though,  going on a 12-play drive lasting just over five minutes – featuring six runs and six passes – which culminated in a 7-yard TD pass from QB Charlie Kantz to wide receiver Aaron McFarland. With the extra point, Taylor knotted the score at 7 apiece with 4:04 left in the first quarter.

Taylor’s defense then stiffened, forcing the Cowboys to go three and out on their next possession, and after a punt, the Yellowjackets took over at their own 47-yard-line and began another lengthy drive – 9 plays over roughly 5 minutes – and ending with Kantz on a QB keeper from the 2-yard-line to give Taylor their first lead of the game. The extra point was blocked, but the Yellowjackets and  their fans were buzzing with the 13-7 lead with 10:53 left in the first half.

The Cowboy’s offense then bogged down some, with an inconsistent possession that led them into  Taylor territory, but then resulted in a sequence with a fumble and loss of two yards on first down, a run for a loss of 6 on second down, a sack of Dupee by Yellowjacket linebacker Brody Lehmann for a loss of 10, that led to Wyoming punting away for the second time in the game.

The Yellowjacket’s couldn’t take advantage of the stall in the Wyoming offense, however, punting the ball back to the Cowboy’s with 2:48 left in the half.

And that’s when Hancock, this past week’s Gold Star Athlete of the Week for his Week 4 performance against Madeira where he racked up 231 yards on the ground and four touchdowns, began to get on a roll.

Hancock ran for 35 yards on that possession – helped along by a huge completion by Dupee to wideout Jai Greene to  pick  up a first down on fourth-and-7 – and took it in the final yard for his first score of the game.  The extra point gave Wyoming the slimmest of margins at 14-13  heading into the half.

Wyoming took the second half kickoff and again Taylor’s defense rose  to the occasion, forcing a Wyoming  three and out.  A 17-yard punt return by Taylor’s McFarland put the  Yellowjackets at midfield, and a 29-yard completion by Kantz to wide receiver Jacob Everett put them deep in  Cowboy territory.  But in a game where the margins are slim, and the room for error slim to none, the first turnover of the game would haunt Taylor.

Kantz was  intercepted by Wyoming LB  Jackson Hamilton at the goal line, with Hamilton returning the pick out to Wyoming’s  18-yard-line. A Hancock run  for five yards, followed by a 18-yard completion by Dupee to Hancock, followed by a 57-yard bomb from Dupee to wide receiver Josiah Gault, put the Cowboy’s in the endzone once again, and put them up  21-13 with 5:04 left in the third quarter.

But  the Yellowjackets weren’t going down without a fight in this CHL slugfest, with Kantz  completing passes of 15  and 36 yards to his favorite target, McFarland, to bring Taylor within  two points at 21-19. The two-point conversion failed, but Taylor was back in the ballgame.

Then Hancock got going again.  After a 20-yard completion by Dupee  to Lyons, Hancock took the handoff on  first down from the Taylor 45 and bulled his way 20 yards – having a lost fumble wiped out by a personal foul facemask on the Yellowjacket defense – down to the Taylor 24. He  followed that up with  7-yard, 4-yard and 10-yard runs  —  the last coming after a false start penalty on the Cowboys – and then rammed his way in the last two yards for his second score of the night  at the 11:08 mark of the fourth quarter.

The extra point extended the Cowboy lead to 9 and gave them a little breathing room, at least for a few minutes. Taylor took the kickoff, and kept their hopes alive converting a third-down and 9 through a Kantz completion to wideout Will Gooding,  and  capitalized on that two plays later when Kantz hit McFarland for their second touchdown of the game – this one a 36-yarder.  The extra point made it 28-26, with plenty of time at 8:54 left in the game.

Yet again, however, it became the Hancock ground show,  as  Taylor’s defensive line was  wearing down against the running back. The first  three plays of the Wyoming possession featured Hancock rumbling for 17 total yards and a first down. Taylor slowed him down on the next play – a loss of 1 – but, on probably the biggest third down of the night for the Yellowjackets,  they couldn’t stop Hancock.

A  run for the first down – in addition to a 15-yard personal foul penalty on Taylor – put the Cowboysat the Taylor  35. Hancock proceeded to run  for 7, 5  and 16 yards, then  and a 4-yard touchdown  run for his third  score on the night. The extra point put Wyoming up 35-26  with 3:10 left in the game, but the quick-strike Yellowjacket offense, which had answered almost every blow they took from Wyoming in the game with one of their own, ran out of gas.

Kantz tried going across the middle to McFarland, but the ball hit McFarland’s hands and bounced into the air, and then the hands of Cowboy DB Drew Bocian at the Taylor 33,  snuffing out the last gasp from Taylor.

A couple of Hancock runs, then a victory formation, put the icing on the cake of what had been Wyoming’s toughest test  so far  this season.

Wyoming head coach Aaron Hancock said his squad’s persistence is what put them back in the lead for good over Taylor.

“The kids did a good job of battling,” Hancock said. “That’s a really good football team, and they did a good job tonight. We’re very happy to come out on top.”

His son, Joel Hancock, played a huge role in that.

“I think the offensive line got buckled  down, and started moving, and that opens up holes,” Hancock said, “and it allows the chains to keep moving, the clock to keep moving, and it was very effective tonight in the second half.”

Hancock added that the challenge from Taylor will definitely keep his team in the mentality of one game at a time.

“I think every week you have to approach it like it’s a one-week season, and this was no different,” he said. “We expect every opponent’s best, so we need to give our best. And we need to prepare like we’re playing a championship each and every week. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We’re working hard to get better as a team, as individuals, and as a collective unit – a team.”

Wyoming moves to 5-0 on the season, 2-0 in the  CHL.  Taylor drops to 3-2 on the season, 1-1 in the CHL.

POSTGAME INTERVIEW

BOX SCORE
Taylor 7-6-6-7 -26
Wyoming 7-7-14-7-35

SCORING PLAYS
W: David Dupee 27 pass to Billy Lyons (Carter Rummer kick)
T: Charlie Kantz 7 pass to Aaron McFarland (Grant Ferguson kick)
T: Kantz 2 run (kick failed)
W: Joel Hancock 1 run (Rummer kick)
W: Dupee 57 pass to Josiah Gault (Rummer kick)
T: Kantz 36 pass to McFarland (pass failed)
W: Hancock 2 run (Rummer kick)
T: Kantz 36 pass to McFarland (Ferguson kick)
W: Hancock 4 run (Rummer kick)

RECORDS: Wyoming 5-0 (2-0 CHL); Taylor 3-2 (1-1 CHL)
UP  NEXT: Wyoming at Reading (3-2, 2-0);  Taylor at Mariemont (1-3, 1-2)

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