A lot has changed in a year for Cuba High School’s football program. One year after its homecoming game was canceled due to a lack of players, the Cuba Wildcats, joined by the Steelville Cardinals, crushed the Pleasant Hope Pirates 44-0 in this season’s Oct. 2 homecoming game in front of a packed house at Wildcat Pride Field.

While the Wildcats were steady on offense, Cuba’s defense was the star of the evening, holding Pleasant Hope to just two yards of total offense. The Pirates recorded 15 passing yards but were held to negative 13 yards rushing, as the Wildcats defense repeatedly wreaked havoc in Pleasant Hope’s backfield. For the first time this season, Cuba recorded an interception, a safety and a special team’s touchdown.

Cuba head coach Kaleb Cason spoke after the win on what he saw from his team on both sides of the ball.

“I loved our defense. Once you get up a lot, it’s easy for your team or your defense to kind of start slowing down. But they wanted that shutout and they went and got it,” Cason said.

“Offensively, we were very methodical,” he added. “We didn’t have a ton of explosive plays, but we didn’t have a ton of negative plays. So very consistent on offense. We like seeing that.”

Cuba got on the board first halfway through the opening quarter when senior running back Ethan Noltkamper broke free for an 18 yard touchdown run. After sophomore Carter Medows crossed the goal line on the two-point conversion attempt, the Wildcats led 8-0 and never looked back.

One minute into the second quarter, Medows ran for a five yard touchdown and completed the two-point conversion to give Cuba a 16-0 advantage.

Less than one minute of game time later, the Wildcats scored its first special teams touchdown of the season. With Pleasant Hope punting out of its own endzone, Steelville senior Will Bailey blocked a punt that Cuba senior Damion Ferguson jumped on, giving Cuba a 22-0 lead.

With 1:31 left in the first half, sophomore running back Nicholas Gipson stiff-armed a Pleasant Hope defender and was off to the races for a 21 yard touchdown to balloon Cuba’s lead to 28-0 heading into halftime.

Medows then scored his second touchdown of the night on a nine yard gallop halfway through the third quarter to make it a 34-0 game heading into the final frame.

Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Noltkamper took his final carry of the evening 11 yards across the pylon for his second touchdown of the evening. An AJ Flores rush completed the two-point conversion to give Cuba a 42-0 lead. 

The Wildcats final score of the night came after senior quarterback and punter Jesse Shireman unleashed a 65 yard booming punt that pinned Pleasant Hope back at its own one-yard line. On the following play, Bailey tackled a Pirate in the end zone for a safety, to make it a 44-0 game.

Cuba finished with 279 rushing yards as a team, led by Noltkamper, who ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. Medows took 15 carries for 78 yards and two touchdowns. Gipson ran for 56 yards on eight carries and one touchdown.

Bailey’s monstrous night on defense concluded with six tackles, 1 1/2 sacks, and two tackles for loss along with a blocked punt that resulted in a touchdown and a tackle that caused a safety. 

Junior Kadin Brooks continued to shine at linebacker for Cuba, tallying six tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss.

Steelville sophomore cornerback Trey Gambill snagged the Wildcats’ first interception of the season and added a pass break up to his productive night in the secondary.

Senior Seth Adderly, who was named Homecoming King during coronation before kickoff, had three tackles and two pass breakups in his first duty as Cuba royalty.

Ferguson made three tackles, one tackle for loss and had a half a sack along with his fumble recovery for a touchdown. 

AJ Flores recorded four tackles, two tackles for a loss and had half a sack. Gipson added five tackles and sophomore Ryan McPherson chipped in two tackles and half a sack for the Wildcats’ defense.

Cuba moved to 3-3 on the season with the win, an improvement of two wins from its 1-5 record through six games last season. Cason, now in his second season as Cuba’s head coach, reflected on the growth of his program during his first two years.

“Being .500 through week six, that’s something that is a huge step forward for us because we were 1-5 at this point last year,” Cason said.

“So being 3-3, we are growing, and that’s kind of what I’m going to say about the rest of the season. We just want to continue to see that growth. We want to continue to get better every week. We have some really tough opponents ahead of us to show whether we’re growing or not.”

The Wildcats will face both of those tough teams on the road during its next two games. Cuba will play in Perryville Oct. 9 versus St. Vincent at 7:30 p.m. and will take on Bayless with Hancock Oct. 16 at 6 p.m. in St. Louis. Cuba will host Perryville at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 for senior night and its regular season finale. Senior Day festivities will take place before kickoff.