By Roger Propst
Calhoun Middle School defeated the White Tigers of Wirt Middle School at Red Devil Stadium on a cold Thursday evening of last week.
With the fans shivering in the stands, the two teams battled back and forth the entire 1st half with neither team able to dent the other's goal line. The Red Devils committed three turnovers when they fumbled twice and were intercepted deep in Red Devil territory. Wirt was unable to capitalize on any of the turnovers and the score at halftime was 0-0.
The Red Devils would not waste much time in taking the lead in the 2nd half. After kicking off to the White Tigers, the Red Devils held and forced a punt. The snap on 4th down sailed over the punter's head and the Red Devils recover the pigskin at the Wirt 13-yard line. Three plays later, Calhoun tailback Ben Laughlin scampered into the end zone from 12 yards away for a Red Devil 6-0 lead. A pass from quarterback Dylan Mefford to Tyler Bennett was good for a two-point conversion, and the Red Devils led 8-0 with 4:07 remaining in the 3rd quarter.
Calhoun kicked off to the White Tigers, but they could not move the football and punted to the Red Devils at the CMS 24. Calhoun began a 12-play drive into Wirt territory mainly on the running of Laughlin sandwiched around an 18-yard run by Mefford, and a 10-yard pass completion to Bennett. The Red Devils drove to the Wirt 9-yard line, but lost 8 yards on the 1st two plays, had an incompletion on 3rd down and were sacked at the 27 on 4th down.
With time running down on the game, Wirt was unable to move the ball and was forced to go for the 1st down on a 4th and 12 deep in their own territory at the 25-yard line. The pass was incomplete and the Red Devils took over the ball on downs at the 25.
Workhorse tailback Ben Laughlin toted the ball on 1st down 19 yards to the Wirt 6, and Mefford then covered the final six yards for the Red Devil score and a 14-0 lead with 15.9 seconds remaining in the game. The conversion attempt was not good and the game ended with the Red Devils winning 14-0.
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