Cowboys suffer tough 45-8 home loss to West Hancock

Hampered by the loss of their starting quarterback, the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows/CAL varsity football team still tried to give it their best shot but were no match for the Britt-West Hancock Eagles last Friday night in a 45-8 loss. After scoring the first touchdown of the night, on a pretty 59-yard scamper by Zach Pogge, the visitors dominated the game the rest of the way for the win.

“Being without our starting quarterback (Kainan Braun) put us in a difficult situation offensively,” said head coach Paul Hansch. “However, that doesn’t excuse giving up 45 points on defense. Mostly, we just got outplayed on both sides of the ball. We were often out of position on the perimeter, and not as physical up front as we need to be. We will continue to work on these things. We all wish the pace of progress would pick up, but for now we will continue to try to fix the things we can.”

The Cowboys compiled 264 total offensive yards, while the Eagles gained 408 on the night. They had 54 plays for an average of 4.9 yards per play, compared to west Hancock’s 6.7 yards per play average. The Cowboys had 13 first downs to 20 for the visitors, converting on 3 of 11 third-downs (27.3 percent) and 2 of 5 fourth-downs (40 percent). There were just four flags for 40 penalty yards on the Cowboys, compared to eight whistles for 80 yards on the Eagles. The Cowboys lost one of three fumbles, and led in time of possession 26:09 to 21:43.

For the full story, see the September 24 edition of the Monitor.