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Cee-Bees Nip Wildcats

By Staff | Oct 16, 2019

Paden City quarterback Ethan Cross looks to pass during Friday’s game against Clay-Battelle. Photo by Scott McCloskey

PADEN CITY – Clay-Battelle traveled to Wetzel County on Friday night with more on their respective minds than a game following the tragic sudden passing of a classmate on Thursday.

Coach Ryan Wilson’s Cee-Bees, however, were able to overcome their heavy hearts for a few hours and use big plays to help secure a special, and important, victory over Paden City.

Senior Sean Hays (30-175-2td) and freshman Carson Shriver (16-164-3td) combined for 339 rushing yards and five touchdowns and Clay-Battelle answered every time the Wildcats got within striking distance to post a 43-33 triumph at Berger Field.

“I’m not sure that everyone even realized that we came here with heavy hearts (Friday),” Wilson said. “And I would like to thank Paden City and these great people for their thoughts and prayers for us.

“We asked our kids to put everything aside for this football game and I have to congratulate them for being able to do it as well as they did. We asked them to focus on this before getting back to grieving afterwards.”

After Clay-Battelle got on the board first with a 3-yard Hays run and a Levi Carrico PAT, Paden City evened things up following a Parker Higgins interception near midfield.

The Wildcats needed 11 plays, and while they had a sure touchdown pass dropped early in the drive, a pass interference call kept the drive alive before senior Ethan Cross found classmate Kyler Wade on a quick hitter over the middle at 2:24. Cross’ point-after made it 7-7.

However, the Cee-Bees needed just 20 seconds to go back in front when Shriver took a reverse out of the Wildcat formation and traveled 58 yards for the go-ahead score and a 14-7 reading.

After a Paden City drive stalled at midfield the visitors were at it again, capping a four-play drive with a 44-yard Shriver burst through the left side of the line on the first play of the second quarter. The kick after failed and it was 20-7.

Just as Clay-Battelle had done earlier, the Wildcats answered quickly with Cross heading down the left sideline before cutting in late to finished off a 47-yard touchdown run and cut the deficit to 20-14.

A nine-play Cee-Bees march late in the half, which consisted of all Hays runs out of the Wildcat, finished with a 7-yard run with Seth Casino hitting Cooper Watson with the two-point conversion and a 28-14 reading at the break.

Paden City got to within a touchdown early in the third on another Cross run of 45 yards and his point-after. But after holding the Cee-Bees to a three-and-out the Wildcats coughed the ball up with Hays bursting in from 11 yards away with eight seconds to play in the third. A two-point conversion pass made it 36-21.

The teams traded touchdowns after that with Cross scoring again, this time from 5 yards away, Shriver adding a 3-yard run with more than a minute to play and Cross’ 48-yard touchdown pass to freshman Zane Yeater with less than a minute to play to cap the scoring.

“Every game counts at this time of year and this one helps us with the playoff situation, but honestly, our minds are somewhere else right now and I just don’t know how much we can enjoy this one,” Wilson said.

Zach Heasley, Paden City’s first-year head coach, took some good out of the loss, but was not totally pleased with his team’s effort.

“It all comes down to execution and effort and I am just not sure our hearts were totally in this one (Friday),” Heasley said.

“We played well at times, but we have to be able to do it for four quarters. Credit Clay-Battelle, they are a good football team with a good coach and they just beat us.”

Cross was responsible for all five Paden City touchdowns with three on the ground and two through the air. The senior finished with 169 yards on the ground and 128 more passing.

Rushing: Clay-Battelle 46-339-5td (Shriver 16-164-3td, Hays 30-175-2td). Paden City: 40-272-3td (Cross 20-169-3td, Thomas 14-82, Higgins 6-21).

Passing: Clay-Battelle 4-9-51-0-x (Casino 3-6-48-0-x, Carrico 1-3-2-0-0). Paden City 11-24-128-2-0 (all by Cross).

Receiving: Clay-Battelle 4-50 (Watson 1-11, Skavinsky 1-36, Hays 2-3). Paden City 0-0-0 (Wade 5-48-td, S.Anderson 1-2, J.Anderson 1-11, Thomas 2-17, McKay 1-1, Yeater 1-48-td).

First Downs: Clay-Battelle 17; Paden City 19. Penalties: Clay-Battelle 8-64; Paden City 2-20. Fumbles: Clay-Battelle 0-0; Paden City 2-1.