Wildcats Record Big Win in Football

In the long history of University School of Milwaukee and its predecessor schools, there have been some high-scoring football games. Saturday afternoon USM added another to the records by outscoring The Hope School 70-16 in a Midwest Classic Conference North clash at Wisconsin Lutheran College’s field.  USM’s total was the highest number of points in any high school game in Wisconsin during the weekend. 

A satisfied Brian Sommers, USM’s head football coach, said after the game, “It was a great day for football on Saturday, and the boys accepted the challenge of ‘playing perfect’.”

The Wildcats compiled 397 total yards, 267 on the ground and 130 via the pass, in the victory.  The USM defense was solid when The Hope School got the ball.  The Wildcats rushers and pass defenders prevented the Hawks from going anywhere in the air, and held them to 240 total yards on the ground.  The Wildcats’ defense also caused the Hawks to fumble 7 times, and the Wildcats recovered 4 of those fumbles.

It took the Wildcats less than a minute to take the lead.  On their second play from scrimmage, Toran Marks ran the ball across The Hope School goal line from 47 yards away.  Tommy Pennington kicked the extra point and it was 7-0 at 11:09 of the first quarter.

After the USM defense held the Hawks, the Wildcats got the ball on The Hope School 39 yard line after a punt. Michael Tucker ran for 32 yards. Then, after a 5 yard penalty, Pennington ran a quarterback keeper in from 12 yards out to make it 13-0.

Once again the Wildcats’ defense held, and the Hawks punted the ball away.  Beginning at The Hope School 36 yard line, Pennington passed to Duke Butler for 11 yards.  Pennington then made a 25 yard run for the touchdown.  The PAT was no good, but USM held a significant 19-0 lead with 5:14 left in the first quarter.

The Wildcats weren’t done. They scored 2 more touchdowns in the final minutes of the quarter.  After the defense got the ball back for the offense, Pennington quickly threw a 43 yard touchdown pass to Lane Stanford and then booted the extra point.

After two drives by the Hawks and one by the Wildcats, the USM offense got its hands on the ball again.  Pennington connected with Butler for 6 yards.  Marks made a 31yard run, and Tucker completed the drive with a 13 yard touchdown run.  Pennington’s point after attempt was good and it was suddenly 33-0 USM.

USM added 14 more points in the second quarter.  Hayden Heun recovered a fumble to give the Wildcats the ball on The Hope School 28 yard line. On the next play Pennington passed to Stanford for another touchdown.  Pennington then kicked the extra point successfully.

On the Hawks next series of downs, USM’s Marsalis McGhee recovered fumble and ran it into the end zone for a 32 yard touchdown.  Pennington kicked the point to give USM a 47-point lead at halftime.

That meant the clock was on running time, so there was not as much time to accomplish things in the final two quarters.  USM did get a third quarter touchdown.  Pennington recovered a fumble by The Hope School. On the next play Marks ran 17 yards for a touchdown.   Pennington’s point after try was good, and the score was 54-0.

The teams scored 16 points apiece in the fourth quarter when coach Sommers was giving his reserves opportunities to perform.  USM made the first of the touchdowns.  Freshman Joey Pennington recovered another Hawks’ fumble.  He then ran for 14 yards in two plays.  Nicky Hicks gained 26 yards running on the next four plays and Joey Pennington completed the drive with a 12 yard touchdown run.  Michael Tucker kicked the extra point. 

Anthony Poe made a 55 yard touchdown run for The Hope School on the next drive, and Demonta Cassell threw a pass to Terrial Graves o give The Hope School its first 8 points.

Djdade Denson ran the following kick off back for 75 yards and a touchdown for USM. Hicks ran the ball over for the extra points to give USM a 70-8 cushion.

The Hope School scored its final points when Chauncy Smith made a 22 yard run.  Torrian Perry ran in the extra point.

In the game, Marks ran the ball for 100 yards, Tucker gained 62 yards rushing Tommy Pennington collected 41 yards on the ground, Hicks gained 31 yards, Joey Pennington gained 26 yards, Cameron Niazi gained 5 yards and Denson gained 2 yards from scrimmage.  Anthony Poe gained 96 yards for The Hope School while Chauncy Smith gained 95 yards.  Tommy Pennington completed 6 of 7 passes for 130 yards passing. Butler caught 3 for 47 yards; Stanford caught 2 for 71 yards and Niazi caught 1 for 12 yards.

Looking forward to next week, Sommers said, “This win sets up a huge game next Saturday, as we take on Living Word Lutheran at USM at 1:00 p.m.  Both teams are undefeated in conference.  A win puts the team in control to win the conference and also would qualify us for the playoffs, a first for any member of the team.”