’Cats strike first, Orioles strike often

On the Custer High School football team’s first possession of its game last Friday, quarterback Kawika Johncour kept the ball around the right side and raced to the corner of the end zone, stretching the ball over the pylon in front of a Lennox defender for a touchdown.
Following the Kiran Pesicka point after, the Wildcats were ahead of the second-ranked team in Class A 7-0.
“I think the kids are coming together,” Custer head coach Russ Evans said of Custer’s early advantage, which included stopping the Orioles on their game-opening possession. “They are building confidence and they believe in what we’re doing and they believe in each other. They are buying into what we are trying to sell and that’s to do your job and give great effort.”
The Orioles are not the second-ranked team in Class A for no reason, however, and rattled off the next 54 points on the way to a 66-13 win that culminated with an Oriole defensive score that ended the game via the mercy rule.
After Custer’s touchdown the Orioles wasted little time getting in the end zone, setting up at the Custer 21 following a long kickoff return. A few plays later Ramsey Williams scored via a five-yard touchdown jaunt.
After a Custer three and out the Orioles took their first lead when a simple swing pass to Leif Karlson led him to race untouched down the field for a score and a 13-7 lead.
Custer fell short on a field goal attempt on its next possession, and Tate Gerdes scored for the Orioles shortly thereafter on an eight-yard run.
Custer started to unravel with turnovers and penalties, and were flagged six times for 40 yards while also turning the ball over three times.
“Those are things we have to fix. Penalties like that are drive killers,” Evans said. “We have to make sure we keep our head. There was a lot of jawing—they were trying to get in our heads. I want them to fight, but we have to be smart and make sure they don’t get in our head.”
Williams scored again on a 33-yard touchdown run, which was followed by a touchdown pass to Drake Mikkelsen on Lennox’s next possession. It was one of three touchdown passes to the 6-5, 205-pound Mikkelsen, as the Orioles took advantage of the younger, smaller players on the boundary for the Wildcats.
“We have guys who are playing hard and doing the best they can,” Evans said. “Some of the physical mismatches got exposed. They were able to do things we didn’t want them to do. But we did defend a few balls. We’re going to get better there. They are determined to get better.”
Custer’s second touchdown came via a 61-yard run by Danny Immormino, who broke a couple of long runs during the course of the game and finished with 132 yards rushing on just 12 carries, a 11 yards per carry average.
“Danny is coming around. He ran hard every play,” Evans said. “(Johncour) had some good throws. There are areas we got better but in other areas we regressed. We have to get those cleaned up.”
Johncour finished the game with 88 yards passing, with Brady Virtue hauling in four of those passes for 27 yards. David Lewis had 42 receiving yards. The Wildcats had 157 yards rushing as a team.
Defensively the Wildcats were paced by Virtue, who had 10 total tackles, including eight solo stops.
Things don’t get any easier for Custer this week, as they make the trek across the state for a matchup against undefeated Madison, which is ranked third in the state in Class A.
Evans said the team would begin evaluation of the Bulldogs, but said like most East River teams, they would likely be big, physical and deep.
“It seems like everybody is bigger than us in a lot of positions,” he said. “We’re ready to work and continue to improve. It’s important to me we keep fighting, have a great week of practice and get after (Madison).”