Wharton blanked by Hillsborough in spring finale

The Wharton Wildcats held down Hillsborough and speedster Duran Bell for most of the first half of their spring jamboree at King High School. In their first two drives, the Terriers went for minus 20 yards. Only late in the second quarter with the field cut in half did Bell get around the Wildcat defense for a 25-yard touchdown. A late pick-six hung a 14-0 loss on the Wildcats but head coach David Mitchell was not discouraged.

“I think we played better than we thought we would,” Mitchell said. “We raised the bar, there’s still room to get better but as a group we played well; there’s nothing to be upset about.”

Top Players

The Wildcats will look to rising junior running back Shannon King this season. King ran for just shy of 400 yards in 2015 and is the source of veteran leadership on the Wildcat offense.

“He (King) in the man on the team this year,” Mitchell said.

King only picked up 20 yards on Thursday night against a stout Hillsborough defense but with a hefty offensive line and a whole summer to develop, look for King to be a thousand-yard rusher this fall.

Rising senior wide receiver Justin Brown will be depended on to make up for the top three Wildcat receivers from 2015 moving on. Brown didn’t log any catches in the spring game against Hillsborough but gained 25 yards on a pair of jet sweeps that netted first downs for the Wildcat offense.

The Wildcats should be fine on defense as veterans AJ Hampton (rising junior), rising senior Chase Goode, and rising senior Justin Visconti return. Goode was second on the team in tackles (71) in 2015 and Visconti was second in sacks (5).

Top Plays

Some other Wildcat defenders emerged in the spring game as rising sophomore Cade Coleman had a drive-killing tackle-for-loss in the second quarter.

Linebacker Christian Thompson and lineman Lavel Dumont combined for a sack that ended up with the Terriers turning it over on downs.

Defensive back Hunter McCain had a bone-jarring hit that broke up a sure completion deep in Wildcat territory.

Top Position Battles

The biggest question mark for the Wildcats this year is at quarterback. The Wildcats started Andrew Curtin who struggled, then Harrison Hawk, who also struggled.

Mitchell thinks that rising sophomore Reshae Soloman, who is listed at 5-6, 125 is going to be the guy in the fall. He was ineligible for the spring game but Mitchell said, “He’ll be the number one guy unless someone beats him out”.

Top Comment

“Our defense is going to be solid but we have to keep them off the field,” Mitchell said.

Top Takeaways

The Wildcats still have some big questions to answer this summer. The quarterback controversy is going to hurt them and prevent them from scoring a ton of points, but if you’re in a situation where you’re looking for a quarterback to step up,  you’d better have a stout defense and solid ground game.

The Wildcats seem to have that as a hefty offensive line with Nikolas Dominguez, Coty Meier and tight end Lavel Dumont. It will be a tall task to get past Plant and the Sickles in the district, but the Wildcats were one win away from grabbing one of those playoff spots last year.