Wildcats Knock Off Montoursville

Tagged under: District 4, News, Playoffs

Ed Weaver | November 6, 2022

The Athens Wildcats are moving on to face top-seeded Danville next Friday following a 37-7 victory over Montoursville in the District IV 3A quarterfinals on Saturday, November 5.

Athens dominated the entire game, with their lone allowed touchdown coming off a bad punt that placed Montoursville inside the Athens’ 20 in the second quarter.

“We’ve had a great rivalry with Montoursville going back to 2004,” Athens head coach Jack Young said. “They’re great people and they’ve had their challenges this year and our thoughts and best wishes go to Coach (Mike) Boughton for the battle he’s fighting, but they’re a worthy opponent. Their schedule was ridiculous. We knew that they’d be physical and tough up front. We’ve shown we can play with anyone physically, that was our big challenge after last week.”

The duo of Mason Lister and Luke Horton put the Wildcats up 14-0 after the first quarter. The pair connected on a TD pass just 3 minutes and 3 seconds into the contest, then Horton picked off a pass just over a minute later and returned it for a touchdown.

Matthew Conklin scored Montoursville’s lone touchdown on a 3-yard jaunt into the end zone just over 3 minutes into the start of the 2nd quarter, but with 1:33 left before the half Lister and Horton connected again to put Athens up 21-7.

In the third quarter Athens went into their bag of tricks, running their version of the “Philly Special.” Lister handed the ball off, then Horton caught the flip and threw to a wide-open Lister to put the Wildcats up 28-7. A safety on a bad punt snap pushed the lead to 30-7 with 4:11 left in the third quarter then Caleb Nichols plowed his way into the end zone from 3 yards out to make it 37-7.

Now the Wildcats (7-4) will take on top-seeded Danville next Friday.

“Our guys are going to put our best effort forward and try to go there, be positive, and see if we can battle with them, because they’re good!”

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