Normally when a high school football team puts up 450-plus yards in total offense they’re celebrating a victory.
Not this time. Not the snake-bitten St. James Tigers.
Despite moving the ball all over the newly-remodeled Cuba High School field and finishing with a whopping 463 yards of total offense, the St. James High School football team opened its season with a 24-12 loss to the Cuba Wildcats in non-conference action Friday.
On paper it was a defensive struggle at halftime, with Cuba holding a 8-0 advantage.
However, both teams had success advancing the ball offensively. St. James had 248 passing yards and 215 rushing yards, but had just a pair of second-half touchdowns to show for it.
“We knew Cuba would be ready to play,” said St. James head coach Greg Harlan said. “It was a competitive game. It’s frustrating that we had chances to put points on the board and couldn’t do it. In addition to our two touchdowns, we had the ball four other times in the redzone where we couldn’t get it in the endzone.
“Some kids made plays; we just could not punch the ball in.”
In addition the Tigers lost another two-way starting player with injury for what could be the rest of the season. Senior receiver/cornerback Tyler Karnes dove for a ball in the third quarter and suffered a separated shoulder. Karnes could miss the rest of the campaign.
Karnes is the seventh projected Tiger starter who has already been lost to injury, most of them for the entire season.
The Wildcats got the lone first-half score at the 5:40 mark of the first period on a 29-yard run by senior running back Ryan Burke. Senior quarterback Nick Kruse ran in the two-point conversion.
Cuba got what would prove to be the victory-clinching TD at the 3:46 mark of the third period, when Kruse, who jumped back and forth from quarterback to running back during the contest, broke off a 60-yard TD run. The Wildcats added the two-point conversion run and it was 16-0.
St. James got on the scoreboard 40 seconds later, as junior quarterback Jake Harlan found senior wideout Zach Lindemann with a 28-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion attempt failed, however.
The Tigers cut their deficit to 16-12 early in the fourth quarter on a trick play. After catching a pass from Harlan senior tight end Danny Jernigan fired a double-pass, connecting with junior wideout Charley Richardson with a 40-yard TD strike. Again the Tigers went for the two-point conversion and again they came up short.
