Wildcats fall against state-rated Wakefield

WAKEFIELD — A 64-41 loss to Wakefield sealed the Wildcats’ fate as they fell to 1-5 and lost an opportunity to make it to another D1 playoffs.

The Wildcats battled some tough competition and suffered from the cancelation of three games due to COVID-19 positive results that sat them at home missing some valuable playing time.

Against Wakefield, the Wildcats fell behind 38-8 and never recovered despite some admirable play.

“Once we got into a 38-8 hole, I thought our kids played some of the best football they have played all year,” Wildcat coach Corey Uldrich said. “We just can’t afford to spot a good team like Wakefield that large of a lead.

The Wildcats offense was hindered by sporadic line play, Uldrich said.

“We weren’t consistent enough offensively pass blocking to really give ourselves a shot to get caught up, and when we gave up losses on sacks, it was difficult to get that yardage made back up on the chains to gain a first down.”

Despite the negative record, Uldrich found plenty of positives to hold on to this season.

“We grew a lot as a young football team this season,” he said. “We only returned one offensive player in the same position as last season, and only three defensive players in the same position.”

Senior Kobe Heitman provided plenty of spark this year with 651 rushing yards and eight touchdowns while also adding 208 receiving yards and six more scores.

Jake Peitz caught 27 passes for 650 yards and 10 touchdowns and Riley Sudbeck stepped in as a freshman quarterback and threw for 1,063 yards with 16 touchdowns against only five interceptions.

“Riley played well beyond his years,” Uldrich said. “He ended the season over 1,000 yards in just six games, which is a testament to his receivers and his line for giving him opportunities to reach that milestone.”

Defensively, Carson Sudbeck, John Lauer, and Kobe Heitman led the Wildcats in tackles.

“I thought Carson came a long way as a linebacker, and he’s becoming more comfortable making the calls on that side of the ball,” Uldrich said. “I thought a number of other guys played well, and from week-to-week, we made a lot of changes to help best situate ourselves to stop the varying styles of offense we saw.

One thing was constant throughout the season, Uldrich said. The team kept getting better each week.

“I believe that all of our guys improved and became better players. We hope those gains will prove valuable for us next year when we return all but two players from our roster,” he said.

The Cats’ lack of consistency hurt in the long run, but those flashes of brilliance can only bode well going forward and hopefully in a year without a pandemic to worry about.

“I can’t say for certain that the pandemic affected our consistency, but I can tell you that it made the season different and challenging,” Uldrich said. “We had three regular season games in a row cancelled, and we lost out on some valuable game reps. The weeks of being able to practice and improve upon fundamentals was great but losing game reps for younger players was something that we just couldn’t afford to have.”

Hartington-Newcastle 8 14 6 13—41

Wakefield 38 12 14 0 — 64

Rushing HNS -Kobe Heitman, 30-121; Lane Heimes, 7-44; Seth Pinkelman, 1-4; Riley Subeck, 12- - 44.

Passing HNS - Riley Sudbeck, 8-19-176; Lane Heimes, 1-1-3.

Receiving HNS - Jake Peitz, 5-83; Kobe Heitman, 1-41; Lane Heimes, 1-32; Carson Sudbeck, 2-23.

Tackles HNS - Carson Sudbeck, 15; John Lauer, 6; Kobe Heitman, 5; Reece Morten, 4; Kale Korth, 3; Daniel Steffen, 3; Turner Dendinger, 2; Jake Peitz, 2; Lane Heimes, 2; Jade Krie, 2; Aiden Gratzfeld, 2; Seth Pinkelman, 1; Kamden Hoesing, 1; Shay Dickes, 1.

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