The final score of Cuba High School’s football game versus St. Vincent makes it look way worse than it was for most of the Oct. 10 matchup. St. Vincent ended up pulling away with a 49-6 victory, but it wasn’t so lopsided for the first half of the game. 

St. Vincent scored the first two touchdowns of the game and led 13-0 heading into the second quarter. The Wildcats responded with a methodical drive, capped off by a two-yard touchdown on a quarterback sneak from Jesse Shireman to make it a 13-6 game with 9:37 remaining in the second quarter.

Unfortunately for Cuba, that would be the closest they would get as three lost fumbles throughout the rest of the game, being stopped on a 4th and 1 and losing 10 yards on another fumble, would come back to bite the Wildcats. St. Vincent repeatedly turned those turnovers into big plays, turning a close game into a blowout.

Cuba fell to 3-4 with the loss and St. Vincent moved to 6-1 with the victory. 

Kaleb Cason, Cuba’s head coach, said afterward that those turnovers put a damper on what was otherwise a productive game, offensively.

“It was one of our best offensive games minus those five plays,” Cason said.

Despite the lopsided loss, Cuba ran for 239 yards and had multiple players run for more than 100 yards.

“We hung around for a while, but fumbles and explosive plays killed us,” Cason added. “A couple of those explosive touchdowns happened on the first play after the fumble. We can’t give a team four free possessions.”

Cuba senior running back Ethan Noltkamper ran for 136 yards on 20 carries. He took six of those carries for at least 10 yards including a 28 yard scamper.

Sophomore running back Carter Medows had 104 rushing yards on 15 carries, including a 40 yard dash for Cuba’s most explosive play of the evening.

Noltkamper also led Cuba’s defense with six tackles and a pass break up out of the safety spot.

Kaden Brooks made four tackles and had Cuba’s only tackle for loss on the evening.

Will Bailey added four tackles from the defensive end position. Damion Ferguson made three tackles and broke up a pass. Medows and Aiden Greenwalt each had three tackles and Trey Gambill chipped in two tackles for Cuba’s defense. Statistics for St. Vincent wasn’t provided. 

The Wildcats will look to bounce back on the road Friday, Oct. 16 against a 2-5 Bayless team, who is co-oping with Hancock. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Bayless High School.