Wildcats Sting Hornets In Their Own Nest For Season’s First Win, 13-12

Edmonson County senior running back Carter Swihart (88) reacts after scoring the second touchdown of the night against host Metcalfe County in a KHSAA high school football game Friday August 30 in Edmonton.

Story and photos by Joseph Barkoff:
Edmonson County High School Wildcat football outlasted the Metcalfe County Hornets 13-12 and earned their first win of the 2024 season on the road Friday night, August 30th in Edmonton.

Metcalfe County received the opening kickoff and marched down for a score in just under three minutes, but were unable to convert a two-point attempt from the one-yard line after a penalty before the kick PAT on the previous play.

The Wildcats took their first possession but punted after four downs.

On the Hornets’ second possession, the Wildcats’ defense was able to stop the Hornets on the Wildcats’ 39 yard-line, forcing them to punt with just over four minutes remaining in the first quarter.

On the first snap of the Wildcats’ second drive, junior quarterback Tristen Muse began the attack. He took the snap, faked a hand off to a motion back and ran off the hole where an offensive tackle once was for 21 yards.

After getting more of the offense involved with touches from junior wide receiver William Saling and senior fullback Garret Lyons, it was fourth down and 6six yards to go as the time ran out on the first quarter with Metcalfe ahead 6-0 over Edmonson.

But as the last seconds of the first quarter wound down, there were visible lightning strikes on the horizon visible beyond both endzones and the game went into a lightning delay as per rules from the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.

According to KHSAA rules, lightning strikes within 10 miles of a game will cause the game to go into a delay for 30 minutes and extend time for each strike.
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When the game resumed over an hour later, it was still fourth down and six yards to go from the Metcalfe County 36 yard-line for Edmonson County.

Edmonson County junior running back Colton White (8) looks for room to run against host Metcalfe County in a KHSAA high school football game Friday August 30 in Edmonton.

Edmonson County junior quarterback Tristen Muse (1) looks for room to run against host Metcalfe County in a KHSAA high school football game Friday August 30 in Edmonton.

​After a delay, the question is always asked, how will the athletes handle to the down time? Will they be still focused and loose enough to resume play?

“We had a fourth and six, and we were able to convert that,” Edmonson County Head Coach Justin Vessels said. “And we kept the drive going. We actually scored our first touchdown on that drive so that was a great job of them to come out after that long break. Come back out sharp and focused and finish that drive.”

After the extra point from junior kicker Colton White, the score was 7-6 in favor of Edmonson County over Metcalfe with 9:14 left in the first half.

The Wildcats held onto the lead and increased it to 13-6 with a touchdown but miss the extra point after.

The Hornets were down, but not completely out and with 1:11 left in the game they would score a touchdown, and a then face a choice.

Go for one point, tie and move into overtime, or go for two points and the win, but if they fail—they lose.

While hindsight is 20-20, Metcalfe chose wrong and had the ball picked off by Edmonson’s Saling in the endzone.

With only 1:11 seconds remaining in the game, Edmonson County took the field after an onside kick off from Metcalfe and assumed the victory formation where the whole offense is close in tight and the quarterback immediately takes a knee after the snap to engage the clock and run out time.

Edmonson County senior fullback Garret Lyons (28) drives his legs for more yards against host Metcalfe County in a KHSAA high school football game Friday August 30 in Edmonton.

Edmonson County junior wide receiver William Saling (14) gains yards after a completion against host Metcalfe County in a KHSAA high school football game Friday August 30 in Edmonton.

​“It feels awesome,” Vessels said after the game. “I’m really proud of these boys. It was a hard-fought win, even to the very end. Metcalfe played a good game.”

“I told them coming into this game it was going to be it was going to be a fight to the end,” Vessels said.

It truly was.

We had to rotate people to keep them fresh because of the heat and humidity, Vessels said. Luckily, we were able to do that and fight to the end and get the win.

The hardest thing for the team to overcome for the evening was the big lightning delay, Vessels said. It’s not something you are used too.

They didn’t change a lot scheme wise from last week to this week, he said. They watched the film and tried to fix mistakes made.

“Hopefully this is something that can happen, where we get a little better each week cause we are fixing mistakes and things,” Vessels said. “And I think that’s what happened tonight.”

The offense opened up and spread the ball around successfully quite a bit more in the second game.

“I think we played much better on offense this week,” he said. “We sustained drives. We had zero turnovers tonight I believe and that’s a big key in a close ballgame like this.”

The defense remembered to wrap on tackles more often this week too.

“Defense played tremendous and got a stop there at there at the end,” he said. “That was awesome.”

“The boys played hard,” Vessels said. “They played for four quarters and it took everybody we had to rotate in and keep everybody fresh.”

The players were happy for their first win of the season too.

“Man, it feels amazing,” White said after the game.

People at school doubt them because they have had a losing season for the past few years, he said. But after this win he feels it will push a lot of momentum into the season.

“We’ll have more,” White said.

White’s favorite things from the night included getting third down stops and getting the Metcalfe punt team onto the field as well as getting the offense running he said.

The hardest thing for him was missing the extra point attempt, White said. But, he is ready for the rest of the season and reiterated he thinks they will get more wins.

“It feels amazing,” senior running back Carter Swihart said after the game. “Coming off of a 2-win (season) last year, already getting strong, you hope that it just leads to more wins.”

He thinks from last week’s loss to this week’s win, as a team, they needed this win more than anything, Swihart said.

“It feels really good, really good,” Muse said after the game. “It’s nice to see the team come together. Finally fixed the simple things, but still got a couple more and we’ll be a whole lot better.”

Fixing the simple things and getting the team moving forward is important and thinks they are on the right track, he said.

“I hope we get a whole lot more wins,” Muse said.

“Fitting all the puzzle pieces together,” Muse said. “Filling all the holes.”

“We got a bunch of stuff still to fix,” he said.

Muse thinks the easiest thing for the team to fix is doing the correct things for each position on each play, he said. He admits he was guilty of that error during the game.

The hardest will be improving more physical strength, Muse said. Like getting Bigger, stronger and physical stats.

Some of that will come with age, the rest will come from good form and repetition.

With Vessels at the helm and his support staff around him, there could be good things ahead for Edmonson County High School football as the whole team grows together, literally and figuratively.

Edmonson County will host Muhlenberg County for their home opener next Friday September 6th at 7 p.m. in Brownsville.