Cuba High School’s football team gave Wildcat fans lots to cheer about in its home opener versus the Grandview Eagles. After a slow start, Cuba got stronger as the game progressed, eventually routing the Eagles 42-6 to extend its record to 2-1 on the season. Cuba’s two wins have already matched last year’s win total with six regular season games still left to be played.

It’s been an emotionally trying start to the season for the Wildcats, who watched sophomore Billie Thompson suffer a scary injury on Sept. 4 in St. James. Thompson was back walking around the sideline Sept. 11 in good spirits with a jersey on, but didn’t suit up. He did play trumpet for Cuba’s marching band during its halftime performance.

On Sept. 10, Zane Brown, senior captain and starter on Cuba’s offensive and defense line, was reportedly involved in a car accident and was forced to watch his team’s home opener from the hospital. Senior Judah Folz and sophomore Preston Hulsey held Brown’s number 79 jersey when the Wildcats took the field and numerous players had Brown’s number written on their arms. When Cuba emerged with a victory, many players shouted, “This is for Zane,” and did their best to cheer him up on a Facetime call as they passed around a phone. It is unclear if Brown will miss the remainder of the season or the severity of his injuries.

Cuba will travel to Festus to take on Jefferson Sept. 18 in its next contest. Kaleb Cason, Cuba’s head football coach, said that it will be one of the more challenging match ups his team will face all season.

“Jefferson’s always full of athletes all the way across the board,” Cason said. “I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say that they’re going to be the best team we face this year so far. So I’m really excited to go out there and compete against another team full of athletes that are really going to push us, and I want to see how we handle that when we get to it.”

Sept. 11 vs. Grandview (Hillsboro)

Cuba welcomed the Grandview Eagles to Wildcat Pride Field for its home opener in front of over 1,000 fans. Both teams seemed to be feeling each other out early as defense reigned supreme.

Cuba struck first on a 76 yard explosive touchdown run from senior Ethan Noltkamper. After the two-point conversion was no good, Cuba maintained its 6-0 lead heading into the second quarter. 

Grandview quickly answered with a touchdown run of its own one minute into the second frame and the score was tied at six after the Eagles conversion wasn’t completed.

The resilient Wildcats responded with a drive down the field that ended in a Carter Medows rushing touchdown to make it a 12-6 game.

After a quick stop on defense, sophomore Nicholas Gipson broke free for a 54 yard touchdown run, his longest of the season. It was a sign of things to come for Gipson, who played the best all-around game of his young career.

Cuba led 18-6 at halftime, but it felt like they had outplayed the Eagles more than the score indicated.

The Wildcats defense controlled the third period and Cuba increased its lead to 26-6 on a 37 yard touchdown scamper from Gipson and a completed two-point conversion pass from senior quarterback Jesse Shireman to sophomore wide receiver Trey Gambill.

The Black and Gold then put Grandview out of its misery in the fourth quarter. Noltkamper ran for an 18 yard touchdown and Gipson bolted in for a 40 yard touchdown to make it a 42-6 game. At that point Cason brought in his backups and the score remained the same as Cuba cruised to victory, bringing elation to its home crowd.

Cason spoke afterwards about the difference between his team in the second half compared to the first two quarters.

“I think we came out slow in the first half, and when we came out in the second half, we knew that we could play better,” Cason said. “When we talked at halftime, the goal was to come out and play better in the second half, and that’s when we kind of really broke it open.”

Gipson and Noltkamper starred on both sides of the ball for the Wildcats. Gipson finished with 161 yards and three touchdowns on nine carries and made 12 tackles and a tackle for loss at linebacker.

Noltkamper ran for 137 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries and had 10 tackles and a fumble recovery out of the safety spot.

Medows finished with 46 yards rushing, a touchdown and a two-point conversion, Shireman ran for 30 yards, Kadin Brooks had 16 rushing yards and Gavin Hepperman scampered for seven fourth quarter yards.

Cuba finished with 397 rushing yards and amassed 1,138 rushing yards as a team through its first three games.

The Wildcats’ running back trio of Noltkamper, Gipson and Medows behind a strong offensive line has spearheaded Cuba’s success so far. Cason said that having so many options in the backfield has allowed him to feel out his opponents defense and feed the hot hand.

“We try to get all three of those guys the ball early on to kind of see who they’re keying on, and then it’s really hard to stop all three of them,” Cason said. “So once we figure out who they’re not focusing on as much, we’re just gonna hand it to them until they make some sort of an adjustment. With all of our misdirection stuff, it’s really hard to take care of all three of them on every single play, and it’s just kind of figuring out where the weakness is each week because it’s really been Ethan (Noltkamper) week one, Carter (Medows) week two, and Nicholas (Gipson) week three. It’s been a different dude every game, so that’s awesome.”

Steelville senior Will Bailey continued his dominance at the defense end position, tallying 14 tackles, three tackles for loss and a fumble recovery. Damion Ferguson made nine tackles, AJ Flores had four tackles, a tackle for loss and a fumble recovery, Luke Whittaker made four tackles and a tackle for loss, Medows had three tackles including a tackle for loss and Cole Kelemen added four tackles for Cuba’s swarming defense.

Seldom used sophomore Bryce Hoss and freshman Malachi Woodruff each saw playing time at defensive tackle filling in for Brown and were shouted out by teammates and coaches for their efforts in the victory. Senior Chase Pitts played admirably, filling in at right tackle as well.

When asked about his defenses’ success, Cason added, “We have struggled with the triple option for the last two years, and we had worked on an adjustment this week. And at halftime, we went ahead and went with it, and that made a huge, huge difference. So adjusting to that triple option is really what made the difference in the second half.” 

Sept. 4 vs. St. James

The Wildcats took the short drive to St. James to take on the Tigers on Sept. 4 in the battle of Route 66. A raucous crowd of nearly 3,000 spent its Friday of Labor Day Weekend at Tiger Field, watching what turned into an exciting and emotional back-and-forth affair.

Cuba started the scoring early, as Medows reached the end zone on a 26 yard run four minutes into the game to give the Wildcats a 6-0 lead after the extra point attempt was no good. St. James immediately responded with a score on an illusive run from senior running back John Nicholson to tie the game at six.

The see-sawing score continued in the second frame, as Medows took a handoff 63 yards across the goal line to give the Cats a 12-6 advantage. St. James was unfazed, answering with a touchdown run and a successful two point conversion attempt to give the Tigers a 14-12 lead going into halftime.

St. James seized momentum in the third quarter, scoring a pair of touchdowns with successful two point conversion attempts to balloon its lead to 30-12 with five minutes left in the third quarter.

With their backs against the walls, the resilient Wildcats fought back. Another long Medows run set up Cuba in the red zone and Gipson took a carry for 10 yards across the pylon to make it a 30-18 game with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

After a stop on defense that forced a St. James punt, Cuba got the ball back on its own 10 yard line. The Wildcats fed the hot hand of Medows, who rewarded the Black and Gold with a 90 yard breakaway score, where he went untouched down the right sideline to make it a 30-24 one possession game with seven minutes and change left in the game.

Both defenses then reigned supreme, keeping the score intact for the remainder of the game as St. James escaped with a 30-24 win over the Wildcats. Each team scored four touchdowns, but the Tigers converted on three out of four two-point conversion attempts and Cuba didn’t complete a conversion, proving to be the difference in the final score.

With less than one minute remaining in the game, Cuba sophomore Billie Thompson suffered an injury that required him to be stretchered off by St. James emergency responders. Fans of both schools who had been as competitive as the two teams were on the field quieted down to a whisper when Thompson was down. Thompson waved to the crowd as he was carted off, which drew a standing ovation from the large audience.

After the final whistle and post game handshakes, both teams locked arms and prayed together at the 50 yard line, drawing admiration from fans and administrators from both districts for their compassion and sportsmanship. Cuba officials confirmed that Thompson later walked out of the hospital and will be undergoing further medical tests.

Medows, in his second ever high school football game, ran for 254 yards, returned a punt for 10 yards and scored three touchdowns in a dazzling performance. His 264 total yards were 22 more yards than the 244 yards St. James’ entire team accounted for.

Gipson ran for 75 yards and a touchdown on eight carries and AJ Flores ran for two yards on one carry.

St. James head coach Dusty Craft clearly made an emphasis to his defense to stop Cuba senior running back Noltkamper after speaking highly of him to The Saint James Press in a Sept. 2 article. Noltkamper, who ran for 184 yards in the season opener versus Linn, was held to 11 yards on 10 carries. Despite being bottled up on offense, Noltkamper shined on defense, tallying a team-high 10 tackles and three tackles for loss out of the safety position.

Cuba’s defense finished with 10 tackles for loss and recovered three fumbles. Bailey had nine tackles and two tackles for loss, Ferguson made six tackles, two pass break ups and one tackle for loss and Whittaker added three tackles and one tackle for loss.

Flores and Brown each made three tackles, had one tackle for loss and recovered a fumble, Seth Adderley had three tackles and a fumble recovery, Shireman made five tackles and Gipson had four tackles to round out the Wildcats’ defensive leaders.

Nicholson ran for 75 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries and senior quarterback Owen Spurgeon ran for two scores to lead the Tigers.     

   Cuba’s junior varsity team lost to St. James 42-6 Sept. 8 in the second matchup in five days between the Wildcats and the Tigers.