Wildcats Beat Cardinals

WAITSBURG — The Wilbur-Creston-Keller (WCK) football team triumphed over the Waitsburg Cardinals on Friday, November 7, winning 64-26.

“The season did not end the way we wanted it to, but usually only one team gets to finish the season on a win, and that’s the state championship team,” said Coach Gabe Kiefel.

The Cardinals had a good week of practice and went into the game confident against last year’s 1B State Champions.

“The first quarter was a killer for us,” said Kiefel. “We did not start making progress until our last possession of the first quarter, but at that point, WCK had a substantial lead.”

After the game, Kiefel said he received praise from the WCK coaches about two Waitsburg players: JJ Gleason and Jarod Hankins. One of the WCK coaches, Darin Reppe, is a graduate of Touchet High School. They were impressed with quarterback Gleason’s running and passing game. On offense, the coaches noted that WCK had to run the ball away from Hankins, who put the hurt on their line.

Gleason scored two touchdowns in the loss, and he had another 100+ yards rushing. Isa Reyes and Martin Vasques each caught a ball and scored a touchdown.

On defense, Vaquez had 24 tackles, Hankins had 15, Tucker Hamilton had 14, and Koyen Fortune had eleven. Fortune also had three quarterback sacks.

At the All-League meeting on November 3, the coaches from the SE1B Wheat Division voted multiple players to be on the All-League 1st team. On offense, Isa Reyes and Landen were selected as wide receivers, and JJ Gleason as quarterback. Gleason was chosen as a defensive back, Jarod Hankins and Koyen Fortune for defensive line, and Martin Vasquz as linebacker. Honorable mentions included Victor Whitmore for both offensive and defensive line, and Tucker Hamilton for linebacker on defense.

“This team has worked harder for us in practice than I have seen as a coach in Waitsburg. They put it all out there day after day. We will be losing eight seniors. A hole that will be hard to fill. However, we have a few years to come with good athletes coming down the pike,” said Kiefel.