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Cedar Crest shuts down Panther run attack, pulls away in second half with Jackson Custer leading the way

Tagged under: District 3, Gameday Hub, News

| September 1, 2023

Falcons head coach Rob Wildasin was fired up after his team put a 33-7 win in the books at Landis field Thursday. “Don’t let the same thing happen this year. We started out just like this, 2-0, then the wheels fell off and we didn’t do much right after that. You have to want it!” he hollared to his team.  After he reminded them he was not yelling because he’s mad, it’s because he’s hungry for more, he congratulated them for shutting down a potent CD East run game. “It wasn’t easy, that’s a good football team. Our kids played their tails off. Their kids played their tails off. We just made a couple more plays”.

It was a “couple more plays” and a few less mistakes that helped the Falcons get the win. The first mistake by the Panthers happened early in the first quarter when, while attemping to punt, the snap went high and the ball was recovered on the two yard line. From there Fernando Marquez plowed into the endzone to give Cedar Crest an early 6-0 lead.

It wasn’t all bad for the Panthers. They responded with a 90 yard drive, led by quarterback Demaj Jollah. On first down from the Falcon 47, he a short, quick pass to Xavier Armstrong to his left. Armstrong made a move and was off to the races to put East up 7-6.

That was the last time East would get into the endzone. From there it was all down hill. Cedar Cliff shot back with a td drive of their own to retake the lead. Quarterback Jackson Custer broke loose for a 54 yard keeper making the score 13-7.  On the ensuing drive the Panthers got to the Falcon 11 but failed to convert on fourth down. That’s how the score remained at the break.

It wasn’t for lake of effort that East lost, they had their chances. Several times the Panthers got deep into Cedar Crest territory, but they just couldn’t get the run game rolling with talented back Jared Porter being held to just 21 yards on the ground, forcing East to us the pass game. Jollah threw the ball 53 times, but over half of those attempts fell incomplete.

The second half started with one of 5 touchbacks from Falcon kicker Eli Beard. Following a Panther punt, Cedar Crest got on the board quickly. Custer took a 13 yard sack, but responed with a 23 yard run then it was speedy back Alex Abreau who finished the 4 play drive with a 28 yard run to put the Falcons up 20-0 with 9:52 left in the third. That’s where the wheels came off for the East passing game. Leo Tirado jumped a route and picked off Jollah, then he races 36 yards for the score. “We know their back was legit, we didn’t mean to force the pass. We just knew we’d die a painful death if we let that kid run the ball. That kid can sling it, but we played our game and came out on top” said Wildasin.

Cedar Cliff put the game out of reach when Marquez took the ball from Custer and fought his way through the defense for an 18 yard score.

 

Quarterback Jackson Custer led the way 60 yards passing and 83 yards on the ground.  Marquez carried for over 60 yards and Abreu carried for 67 yards. Cedar Crest will travel to Warwick to try to keep the momentum rolling while the Panthers have a trip to Northeastern.

 

 

 

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