Worth County overcame all kinds of adversity to beat King City 44-34 Friday, coming back from 16 points down twice to beat the Wildkats. The adversity started on their first series when the Tigers started a nice, long drive, getting into King City territory. But then they fumbled it away, the first of three fumbles in the rain on a slick field. King City wasted no time taking advantage, giving the ball to Parker Muff three times. He took it to the house the third time from 46 yards out and ran in the extra points to put King City up 8-0 with 8:43 left in the first quarter.
After the two teams exchanged punts, Worth County had a golden opportunity to score as they had the ball in King City territory after a short kick at the Wildkat 39. But on their second play from scrimmage, they fumbled it again and Muff gashed the Tigers with runs of 12, 11, 18, and finally a six yard run with 51 seconds left in the first quarter, putting him over 100 yards already. Mooney caught the extra point pass and King City was up 16-0.
Worth County finally struck back as Levi Cassavaugh had a long runback to the 38. Alex Rinehart took it to the house from 38 yards out as he bounced outside with six seconds left in the first to make it 16-6. But the Tigers failed to convert the extra points and remained down two possessions.
But King City overcame a false start with a third and nine completion from Landon Wells to Corbin Taylor that went for 15 yards to the Tiger 36. From there, they fed Parker Muff at will. Worth County knew what the play was going to be, and it didn't matter as he gashed the Tigers for six straight plays from the 36 to the three. The Tigers finally stiffened up at the three and stuffed him for no gain, then Landon Wells took it to the one for fourth and goal. Then, they went back to Wells, pitching it out for a score with 6:40 left to make it 22-6. But Worth County denied the extra point try to keep the deficit at two possessions.
Worth County marched the ball right down the field as Alex Rinehart got blocks from Levi Cassavaugh and Jackson Runde to pick up 8 yards, Aydan Gladstone threw strikes to Dylan McIntyre for 10 and Jackson Runde for 17, Alex Rinehart picked up 8 more yards to the 12, and then Aydan Gladstone picked up the remaining 12 yards on two carries, scoring from two yards out with 4:33 left to make it 22-14 after the pass to Dylan McIntyre to cut it to one possession.
King City went back to Muff after getting the ball on the 15, and he picked up carries of 10 and 8 yards to the 33. Landon Wells' rollout picked up five more, and King City tried to go back to Muff again. But this time, Jace Latham shot a gap and dropped Wells for a loss of three, Braxton Hightshoe met him after a two yard gain, and Dylan McIntyre broke up a pass to force a punt.
Worth County was pinned at their own 7 following a false start, but a helmet to helmet hit on King City gave the Tigers new life at the 27. Gladstone threw a strike to Runde for 23 yards to the King City 30, ripped off two carries of 11 yards to the 19, and threw a strike to Runde to the 7. Gladstone picked up one more yard to the six. But with time winding down, Worth County took too long to get the play set up. Gladstone picked up three more before stepping out of bounds with one second left. But the clock kept right on running, and the referees did not fix the clock, but declared that the half was over.
That gave King City all the momentum in the world to start the second half; they got the ball and kept feeding Muff over and over again. Worth County knew what the play was going to be, and it didn't matter as Muff covered 63 yards in eight plays and took it to the house from 21 yards out with 8:12 left to make it 28-14.
The special teams play kept Worth County in the game, and they got another long runback, this time from Tyler New to the 39. A 27 yard pass from Gladstone to Dylan McIntyre took it to the 13, but with the slick conditions and King City going for the strip at the end of runs, the Tigers fumbled the ball away again at the Wildkat 5. King City had a golden opportunity to make it three possessions and sure enough, they started feeding Parker Muff again, getting a first down to the 17. They mixed in a 10 yard pass to Mooney to the 27, but then Worth County stiffened up, dropping Muff twice and King City got a false start. They aired it out to Corbin Taylor, which worked wonders last year in King City's 50-44 win over Worth County, but this time, Dylan McIntyre picked it off at the 28 to kill the drive.
Aydan Gladstone got flushed out and driven out of bounds for a sack, but threw a strike of 20 yards on the next play to Runde to the 39. He finally threw an incomplete pass, but then got loose on a designed draw after getting blocks from Auston Pride and Creed Wilcox that covered 41 yards to the house with 1:37 left. McIntyre caught the extra point pass to make it 28-22.
But King City went right back to Parker Muff after Worth County pinned them at their own 15. Worth County knew what the play was going to be, and it didn't matter, as Muff covered 65 yards on six carries to get into the end zone again with 11:43 left in the fourth quarter and go up 34-22. The Parker Muff show was in full force, as he was over 300 yards. Out of 50 plays that King City had run at that point, 41 were to Muff.
Alex Rinehart had a good runback to the 33, which set up the Tigers once again. Aydan Gladstone threw a strike to Dylan McIntyre for 24 yards to the King City 23. McIntyre was able to take advantage of a much shorter defender all night long for the Tigers. Worth County went the rest of the way on the ground, getting a one yard run from Aydan Gladstone with 9:34 left. Dylan McIntyre caught the extra point pass to make it 34-30.
King City seemingly had an answer as they ran back the ensuing kick to the Tiger 23, only for it to be called back by a holding penalty, forcing them into bad field position at their own 12.
Last year's game followed a similar script for Worth County; they dug themselves in a hole against the same team with the same personnel, fought their way back, and finally got it down to one possession. But they were unable to buy a stop, and King City got several first downs in a row to kill the clock last year. But this year, things were different. After an offsides penalty and yet another Muff run for a first down, the Tigers stiffened up as Dylan Wilmes and Jackson Runde shot through to drop Muff for a loss to set up third and nine. King City dropped back to pass, something that had worked last year time and time again. But this time, Jackson Runde picked it off at the King City 26, and Worth County had a short field to work with. Alex Rinehart picked up only one, but then Aydan Gladstone took a counter 25 yards to the house with 6:50 left and Alex Rinehart caught the extra point pass to make it 38-34 and give Worth County the lead for the first time.
King City tried to go to Muff again, use their workhorse to get down the field, and leave Worth County with as little time as possible to answer. But on the second play, Alex Rinehart, inserted at defensive end instead of his usual linebacker position, shot through and dropped Muff for a loss to set up third and ten. This was the first of three big plays on defense in the last five minutes for Rinehart. They went back to the long pass play, but a long pass was unsuccessful, setting up a fourth down. With four minutes left, King City could have punted it away, but their punts had been short up to that point, and they didn't want the ball back in Worth County's hands. Also, they thought they had the perfect play -- isolate Ty Mooney, who was being covered by Alex Rinehart, who had rolled his ankle in the first half. There was a heartstopping moment, but Alex pushed through the pain and went with Mooney stride for stride and deflected the pass. Mooney nearly hauled it in anyway, getting a hand on it twice before it finally fell incomplete.
With Worth County taking over on downs at the King City 30, King City, with time running out, loaded the box with all eight players, trying to force a stop or a turnover. They held Worth County to no yards in three plays. But on the fourth, Aydan Gladstone threw a strike to an unguarded Dylan McIntyre for a score with 2:50 left to make it two possessions at 44-34.
Corbin Taylor seemingly ran back the ensuing kick for a score, but for the second time, a long King City runback was called back by a penalty, this time to the 10. That meant that nothing was hurt when they finally completed a long pass to Mooney that went for 33 yards to the Tiger 37. They dropped back to pass again, but Alex Rinehart was the man of the hour again on defense, sacking Wells, and a holding penalty set them back even more to the 20. King City aired it out twice, but Aydan Gladstone broke it up twice, and Worth County was able to kneel out the clock.
Aydan Gladstone had 18 carries for 137 yards, Alex Rinehart 15 carries for 108 yards, and Levi Cassavaugh one carry for three yards. Aydan Gladstone completed 8 out of his 10 pass attempts for 163 yards. Dylan McIntyre had 4 catches for 91 yards, while Jackson Runde had 4 catches for 72 yards. Worth County had 44 plays go for 411 yards. They had only four penalties for 25 yards, a far cry from the first game of the year, in which they had 15.
Parker Muff had 46 carries for 311 yards, running the ball 46 times out of the 62 plays King City ran. One big difference from last time was the improved pass defense; Worth County held King City to 66 passing yards after being gashed for 198 through the air last year. King City ran 62 plays for 384 yards.
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