Needless to say, it has been a season of ups and downs for Moundridge head football coach Courtney Moddelmog.
The Wildcats (4-6) prepare to face St. Mary’s Colgan at 2 p.m. today at Hutchinson Field in the second round of the Class 2-1A state football playoffs and Moddelmog expected this to be a different season than it turrned out to be.
“We had a good group of seniors that were coming back and this was an unexpected year,” Moddelmog said. “We lost our leading rusher in week three and finally got him back.”
That running back, Caleb Critchfield, was expected to be a 1,000-yard rusher for Moundridge this year and, instead, spent a week in the hospital with a torn esophagus and now will be the focus of a medical paper done by KU Medical Center because of his rare injury.
Nonetheless, the injury to Critchfield sent the Wildcats on a downward spiral that found them going just 1-5 in the Heart of America and finishing next to last.
“We were thin going into the season and he was the heart and soul of our team,” Moddelmog said. “Things continued to go south after we lost him.”
The next week, things got worse for the running game as they lost a tailback to a torn ACL.
But, in a bright spot, their last four losses of the season came by a touchdown or less.
“We’ve been doing some patchwork on our team,” Moddelmog said. “We have been limited on what we can do.”
Now, Moundridge will travel to Pittsburg to face a Colgan defense that has allowed just one touchdown in their last four games and held their previous two opponents to under 100 yards of total offense.
While Crutchfield is expected to return today, the rushing game for the Wildcats will have to made endroads, mainly due to the fact that the Wildcats have attempted just 23 passes all season, completing just six of those.
“It is not necessarily by design,” Moddelmog said. “We’ve just struggled to throw the ball and we’ve had some inconsistency in the backfield and that has killed us.”
It will also be a game where the Panthers will line up against a team that suits up limited numbers — just 28 will make the trip today.
“We talked to our kids about their numbers and it could be worse,” Moddelmog said. “When we were there in 2003 and 2004, we had over 40 kids and it is hard to keep those numbers up in high school.
“We were practicing some days with about 20, but now we are up to 28 ... it has been a challenge.”
For the Wildcats, they are also facing what Moddelmog calls one of the fastest teams they have seen all season.
“We just have to handle the speed that is on the field in blue ... that has been the most impressive thing that we have seen on film from Colgan,” Moddelmog said.
In addition to the team speed, Moddelmog said that penalties and turnovers are also an issue that the Wildcats have to address before playing the Panthers.
This season, Moundridge has thrown five interceptions and fumbled four times.
“The mental errors that we have had this year we can’t have,” Moddelmog said. “As a wing-T team, if we have a 10- to 15-yard penalty, it will be tough for us to make that up.”
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140. Follow Morning Sun sports at twitter.com/mssports
PITTSBURG —
