WAVERLY — Yates Center High showed off plenty of offensive fireworks, but several costly penalties cut the Wildcats short of a victory.
The Wildcats had two touchdowns and another long play called back because of penalty, then lost a fumble deep in host Waverly High territory with three minutes left in a 54-38 setback
The loss drops Yates Center to 1-2.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot way too many times,” Wildcat head coach Ben Wiehn said. “The worst thing we can do is not learn from this.”
Kaleb DeNoon had a sterling effort on offense and defense. He rushed 135 yards and tour touchdowns, threw for 180 more yards with another score and led Yates Center with 17 tackles.
Austin McNett rushed for 57 yards and a score and had three receptions covering 45 yards. He also had 13 tackles, six solo. Robert Arnold pulled down six catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. Trevor Chism had 35 yards on two catches.
Reid Brant had eight tackles. Justin Rossillon had 10 stops.
Waverly rushed for more than 300 yards, Wiehn said, most of which came on dive and option plays, with a few play-action passes sprinkled in, with devastating results.
“They hit us with some big plays, but I thought we should have won the game,” Wiehn said. “Mistakes just killed us tonight.”
Yates Center returns to action Friday at home against Central Burden.
Mistakes costly to Yates Center in shootout
