Celebrations Glade Valley Sports WHS Lions Pride 

Lions Roll to 6 and 0, Handling Catoctin 48-6 on a Beautiful Homecoming Evening

WHS Lions Pride Original Story:

by Joey Thompson & photos by Jake Keith for Walkersville High School Lion’s Pride

It has been a pretty easy season so far for Walkersville football, and this game was no different. The Lions destroyed the Catoctin Cougars 48-6, and the score really could have been way worse than that.

Wearing their traditional black homecoming jerseys the Lions came out and got the ball first around midfield after a good return by senior Jake Parson. On the first play from scrimmage junior quarterback Billy Gant handed the ball off to senior Chad Gleason. Gleason disappeared into a scrum of players, then cut right, broke a couple of tackles, and was gone. The Lions had taken the lead seventeen seconds into the game and would never relinquish it, dominating the Cougars in every facet of the game.

The Cougars came out with a pass-first attack, knowing that their best chance to do anything on offense was to throw downfield and hope they could string together some drives. This did not work at all. Catoctin sophomore quarterback Christian Michael completed only two passes in the first half despite throwing almost as much as they ran. Those throws combined to lose the Cougars two yards.

The running game was even worse. When they ran up the middle they were stuffed by the front seven, and when they ran outside the linebackers and cornerbacks were there to stop the Cougars for little to no gain. The Cougars finished the first half with no first downs and a net total of -22 yards. Junior cornerback Aaron Jahnke added to his excellent season with a fantastic one-handed interception, highlighting an excellent day for the secondary. Junior free safety Josh Polce said, “We were all on the same page and we were able to execute all of our coverages. We had no breakdowns and the d-line kept the pressure on them too.”

Mills Custom Wood Floors

After the first drive the Lions continued to roll on offense. Gleason ended up getting only three carries, but had incredible touchdown runs on all three. He has been great at fighting through contact this year, but this was far and beyond anything he had done before. He literally could not be tackled. Including his punt return for a touchdown, Gleason touched the ball four times and scored a touchdown on all four. In the stands, junior Collin Jacobs said, “It’s been an absolute, complete blowout. Chad’s been an absolute beast this game. He’s scoring every time he touches the ball.”

Gleason’s touchdown was joined by an 8 yard rushing touchdown from junior Jacob Wetzel, a great touchdown pass to Polce, and a punt return from junior Ty Littleton. The performance of the special teams was noteworthy today as well. The punt returns from Littleton and Gleason were astonishingly easy, with Littleton seemingly jogging into the endzone as if they play had been blown dead.

The running clock in the second half ensured that the scoring would slow significantly. Both teams had only two possessions each, with Catoctin taking up the entire third quarter to score their first touchdown. It was the first score that the Lions gave up since the first game of the season on September 2nd against Thomas Johnson.

There was added excitement around the game due to this being the annual homecoming game. The homecoming court was announced at halftime and the atmosphere in the crowd was great. Sophomore Katelyn Burdette said, “It’s the best game I’ve been to so far. The homecoming atmosphere made it a lot of fun.”

With the win the Lions move to 6-0 on the season, and the loss brings Catoctin to 2-5. The Lions will now move on and will play the Oakdale Bears at Oakdale next Friday. Walkersville and Oakdale are both 6-0 and are the two best teams in Frederick County,. It should be a great game as the Lions go on the road to play the Bears.

Facebook Comments

Related posts