Cascade football team edges Oak Harbor

Published 11:05 am Thursday, September 11, 2008

OAK HARBOR — Last season’s matchup between Cascade and Oak Harbor came in the final week of the regular season and had playoff implications.

With Cascade moving to the Wesco South this season, the Bruins trip to Oak Harbor on Friday didn’t have any league consequence, but that didn’t stop the fans from coming in droves to Wildcat Memorial Stadium.

Part of the curiosity may have been to watch new Oak Harbor head coach Jay Turner’s debut after 12 seasons as an assistant, and his debut couldn’t have more exciting.

The Bruins prevailed 15-10 to hand the Wildcats their first loss in the one-plus year history of Wildcat Memorial Stadium, but not before the Wildcats made it interesting.

Bruins’ quarterback Aaron Frye scored on a 13-yard run to cap a seven-play, 64-yard drive with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter to make it 15-3 and it appeared the Bruins had the game sewn up.

But Wildcats quarterback James Jordan shrugged off an abysmal first-half passing performance to march the Wildcats down the field with completions of 17 and 13 yards before completing another pass to Stephen Lewis, who slipped a tackle and took the ball in for the 37-yard touchdown reception with 2:18 to play.

Cascade recovered the onside kick, but with the clock under a minute, the Bruins fumbled and Oak Harbor took over at the Cascade 48 with a chance to win. Jordan had several looks down field, but couldn’t complete any of the passes and facing fourth-and-long, his pass was picked off by Frye to finish the contest.

“It doesn’t get more exciting than that,” Turner said. “Cascade is tough … they’re a physical team they come out and hit you. That’s a great first game for us, but we came out and made a lot of mistakes and playing a young team that’s going to happen. Hopefully we learn from them and get after it next week.”

The loss was also the first home loss for the Wildcats in three seasons — another fact that wasn’t lost on the Cascade players and coaches.

“We came here wanting to do that and we did,” Cascade coach Jake Huizinga said. “We’re excited to be the first visiting team to win a game in this beautiful stadium.”

Frye led the way, rushing 12 times for 82 yards and a score, and completed three of six passes for 77 yards and another score and also added an interception to close each half.

“It feels great,” Frye said. “(Being the first team to win) was our goal the whole time and we minimized mistakes. We thought we might be sloppy but we played good.”

There were the typical opening-game gaffes and jitters in the first half as both teams combined to fumble three times — including an Oak Harbor failure to recover a kickoff — and several receivers had passes bounce off their hands.

The only first-half fireworks came on Cascade’s second drive of the contest. Facing third-and-14 at his own 40, Frye stepped back and found Spencer Hancock wide open. Hancock pulled the ball in with one hand, fended off an Oak Harbor defender and dove for the touchdown. Frye found Lex Duncan on a trick play for the two-point conversion for the 8-0 lead with 1:24 left in the first quarter.

Lewis finished with three catches for 62 yards and rushed 12 times 76 yards.

At Oak Harbor Memorial Stadium

Cascade8007—15

Oak Harbor0037—10

Cascade—Hancock 60 pass from Frye (Duncan pass from Frye)

OH—FG Flavin 22

Cascade—Frye 13 run (Wiedmer kick)

OH—Lewis 37 pass from Jordan (Flavin kick)

Records—Cascade 1-00 overall. Oak Harbor 0-1.