Christopher Hugo, Section618.com
Mt. Vernon — Victory was just out of the reach of the Mt. Vernon Rams at Ken Hunt Stadium on Friday night when the Cahokia Comanches left town with a 36-28 victory.
The Rams seemed to control the time of possession most of the night. Their first drive took a little over four minutes off of the clock and ended in a missed 47-yard field goal by Truman Carnine. Carnine would respond by making both of his point after attempt kicks.
The Comanches first drive stalled and a Cahokia punt setup the Rams at their own 34. Mt. Vernon’s Mylan Nettles took the first play from scrimmage 64-yards all the way down to the Cahokia 2. An offside penalty then setup a Malakai Mays 1-yard run to give the Rams a 7-0 lead with 3:22 left in the 1st.
Cahokia’s next drive stalled and a fake punt try would leave them just short of a first down. The turnover on downs looked to give Mt. Vernon the momentum–until Cahokia’s Joviano Howard would tip and recover a Rams pitch in the backfield and return the ball to the Mt. Vernon 22. That ultimately setup a Zion Taylor 17-yard run and cut the Rams lead to 7-6 with 4.7 seconds left in the quarter.
Mt. Vernon controlled most of the 2nd quarter clock until they turned the ball over on downs with 7:41 left. Finally, Jhymear Smith-Henson recovered a Comanche fumble at the Cahokia 40-yard line. A 60-yard drive was capped off when Mays ran in his second score of the night from the two. The Rams 14-6 lead wouldn’t last long. The Comanches Peter Baxtron returned the kickoff 94-yards for the touchdown and then the 2-point conversion was successful which led to a 14-all halftime score.
Baxtron then had a big play on the opening drive of the second half when he coralled a Taylor pass that appeared to hit the ground. Baxtron fan 47-yards for the touchdown and other successful 2PC gave Cahokia their first lead at 22-14 with 10:59 left in the 3rd quarter.
Mt. Vernon again chewed up clock when they ate up yards leading to Mays finding Cole Timmons for an 8-yard touchdown catch. Equinton Millsap ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game at 22 at the 6:38 mark.
It didn’t take Cahokia long to regain the lead. Taylor found Stephon Moore to the left for what proved to be a go-ahead 67-yard touchdown reception. Braxton reeled in the two-point conversation catch and the Comanches stretched the lead to 30-22.
Possessions were traded again until Mt. Vernon’s RJ King III stepped in front of a Taylor pass at the Rams 32-yard line with 2:16 left in the third. This setup a Navontae Nesbit 29-yard touchdown run to start the 4th Quarter but the subsequent conversion failed with the Rams trailing 30-28. Cahokia would take advantage of Howard again as his fresh wheels from scrimmage gave him the burst to score a 25-yard rushing touchdown with 4:54 remaining getting us to the final score of 36-28.
The Rams ate the rest of the clock and got as close as the Comanche 18 with 36.2 seconds left. Smith-Henson gained nearly two yards on a 4th down-and-2 but the chains ruled the effort to be just short and turned the ball over on downs for the Comanches to take a knee and run out the clock.
Mays was 8/14 for 109 yards passing with a TD and interception with 2 more TDs on the ground. The Rams managed 286 yards rushing as a team.
Cahokia improves to 3-3 (2-1 in South Seven) while Mt. Vernon drops to 3-3 (0-3 in South Seven). The Comanches welcome Centralia next Friday night while the Rams entertain Granite City for homecoming. You can listen to the Rams game on 94.1 FM and the WMIX-FM Feed on the Section618.com App or watch live on the WMIX Sports YouTube Channel.