Cassopolis falls to Hartford 37-36 in Homecoming thriller

Published 10:10 am Saturday, September 21, 2024

By Max Harden

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CASSOPOLIS —The Cassopolis football team dropped a hazy Homecoming night heartbreaker to Hartford Friday night.

The Huskies scored the go-ahead touchdown with just over one minute to play and its defense stopped quarterback Lucas Williams near the end zone as time expired to earn a 37-36 victory over Cassopolis in a Southwest 10 thriller on the Rangers’ homecoming at William F. Scott Field.    

“We had ample opportunities to win the game,” Lee said. “This is a young team so we’re going to build off of this. Cass is gonna be back. It’s gonna be fine.”

Trailing 37-36 in the closing seconds, Williams found receiver Jaylen Pratt for a 34-yard pass play on 4th and 1 to Hartford 1-yard line. A delay of game penalty against Cassopolis put the ball on the six-yard line. With 16 second left, Williams went to Pratt in the end zone but he was unable to hold onto the catch.

With nine seconds remaining, the Rangers opted for one more chance at the end zone before trying for a field goal but Williams was tackled while running to his left as time expired.

“All I ask is for them to give me the best that they’ve got and compete,” Lee said. “I was disappointed in the outcome. We had a chance with nine seconds left to win the game. They fought and I can’t ask for anything else as a head coach.”

After a slow start to the game, the two teams began trading touchdowns starting in the second quarter. Williams and Higgins touchdown runs gave the Rangers a 14-8 lead at halftime. The game was 22-22 after three quarters.

Sophomore Lane Leach led the Rangers with 16 tackles on defense. Williams completed 7 of 19 passes for 228 yards and one touchdown pass and added a 2-yard rushing touchdown and Anthony Higgins had five carries for 81 yards and a 73-yard touchdown.

“(Williams and Higgins) are a couple of our captains. When we need something done, they usually do it,” Lee said. “Williams is a sophomore, he hasn’t played a lot of football but he’s grown up. (Higgins) has been here, he’s taken the lumps with us, but he’s a senior and knows what it takes to compete and he did it again tonight. We can’t ask much more from these kids, they competed the whole way.”

Cassopolis (0-4) will regroup and gear up to face Centreville (1-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at Centreville. While the loss was a bitter pill to swallow, Lee believes the team is heading in the right direction.

“We’ll break down this film on Monday and build off of it,” Lee said. “This is a good thing – we could have did better but we’re going in the right direction. It’s not going to happen overnight – it’s’ a marathon, not a sprint. That’s what we tell these boys every day. Keep building, keep building and they got better tonight as a team.”

Cassopolis 0 14 8 14

Hartford 0 8 14 15

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