Mules fall to Cardinals in 35-16 loss

Story by Rick Nelson

Photos by Diana Zimmerman

Hard times continue for the Wahkiakum Mule football team as they lost 35-16 last Friday at Winlock.

Big plays were the Mules' undoing. The Cardinals scored on runs of 50, 80, 20, 63 and 44 yards.

" Overall, I thought our defense played well,"said Mule Coach Eric Hansen. "When we did our jobs, we did all right. When we didn't, they killed us.

"Scoring twice was the high point for us."

Sophomore Zach Brown put the Mules on the scoreboard on a 55-yard run at 3:47 of the second quarter. Hank Ferguson ran the conversion to make the score 14-8 at that point.

Winlock scored with seconds left in the second quarter to lead 21-8 at halftime. They added touchdowns in the third and fourth quarter to build a 35-8 lead.

Ferguson passed to Brown for an 8-yard scoring play with 1:03 left in the game. Ryan Quigley got the conversion for the final 35-16 score.

The Mules had 115 yards rushing and 96 yards passing. Brown led the runners with 92 yards on 14 carries. Ferguson completed six of 16 passes, with one interception, for 96 yards and one touchdown. Brown caught three passes for 31 yards, and Quigley caught two for 65 yards.

On defense, Brown made 10 tackles and had seven assists. Ferguson was 5/7, McKenzie Menard 3/5, Ryan Quigley 3/4, Evan Quigley 2/4, James Anderson 2/3, Dylan Ahmed 2/2, Nick Hummer 2/1, Zach Johnston 1/1, Casey Wilson 0/4, and Seth Kuljis and Flavio Stuckie each 0/1.

The Mules head to Mossyrock this Friday to take on the Vikings. They'll end their season October 30 at home against Toledo.