FULTON The Tony Slocum era started off on the right foot Friday night at home when the Caston Comets defeated West Central 13-8 to open their season.

Using a tightly packed double wing offense and a stubborn fly to the ball defense the Comets turned away a determined Trojan squad to claim the win.

Both teams had some success moving the ball in the first half but neither squad could make their way to the end zone. In fact, most of the action in the first half was kept between the 30s and when the teams entered the locker room for halftime the score was still knotted at 0-0.

With less than 5:00 left in the third quarter Caston got its first break of the game. With the ball on the 21-yard line West Central fumbled the ball but recovered on the 6. Forced to punt the ball away the Comets went to work on the 34-yard line. On the fourth play from scrimmage Kasey Ault ran nearside and when he got to the corner he grabbed the back of Dillion Tabler's jersey and followed his blocker into the end zone from 20 yards out at the 2:11 mark to give Caston the lead at 6-0. The point after by Brady Hartman failed.

The football gods were smiling on the Comets following their touchdown. On the first play from scrimmage following the Caston score the Trojans went to the air. To the delight of the Comet faithful the pass missed the intended receiver and instead fell into the arms of Hartman who returned it to the 18-yard line. Three plays later it was Hartman punching it in from 1 yard out at the :27 mark of the third quarter. The PAT by Hartman was good this time and Caston was up 13-0. The score stood heading into the final quarter of play.

The Trojans' only score of the game came on their first possession of the fourth quarter. A 28-yard touchdown pass from Brayden Kletz to Cameron Pratt culminated a nine-play drive at the 9:25 mark. The pass conversion to Pratt looked as if were going to be no good, but as he was being tackled he extended the ball across the goal line and the Comet lead was cut to 13-8.

Forcing a three-and-out by the Comets, West Central went to work again taking nearly seven minutes left on the clock. But surprisingly the Trojans went to the air for incomplete passes on each of their first three downs. The result was three incomplete passes. Facing a fourth-and-long with their punter in the end zone Caston had a nice chance for a safety. Their chances for the safety improved greatly when Pratt fumbled the ball. With the Comet defense closing in on him Pratt escaped and made it to the 43-yard line before being brought down. The Trojan drive stalled after 10 plays before turning the ball over on downs.

Neither team threatened to score after that and Caston took possession of the ball with 1:17 left in the game and ran the clock out for the 13-8 win.

Ault led the Comets with 105 yards rushing on 18 carries. Hartman finished with 66 yards with 18 carries as well.

"It all goes to our lineman. Without them we'd get nowhere when we try to run," Ault said. "We do need to get better and we need to keep conditioning. That has to improve because everybody has to play both ways. Nobody will be coming off the field. We'll enjoy it tonight but tomorrow we'll come in and start over getting ready for next week."

Caston's defense held the Trojans to just 106 yards on the ground and 97 yards through the air.

Ault and Hartman led the defense with five tackles each.

"We had some problems with kids cramping tonight," said Slocum. "We've got to find a way for that to keep from happening. We don't have a lot in the way of number of players so we have to keep them on the field. But even though we're few we're not going to make excuses. We just tried to put pressure on West Central's defense tonight and my hat's off to this group of young men. They played hard tonight and came away with the win."

Originally posted here:

Comets hold off Trojans - pharostribune.com