Hand it to Hinkle: Woodland Christian takes a wild win over rival Delta
With a Metro Athletic League title possibly hanging in the balance Friday night, Woodland Christian coach Mike Paschke turned to an unremarkable-sounding strategy: Hand the ball to Billy Hinkle.
The junior all-purpose player ran with it.
Hinkle ran the ball six out of seven plays on the Cardinals’ final drive, including a 29-yard sprint up the sideline for his team’s final score in a wild 42-36 win over Delta. He finished with 118 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns. But that’s not all. He played receiver for much of the first half, netting 72 receiving yards and a touchdown. Oh, and he also threw for a touchdown in the second half. Hinkle presumably went on to change the oil in the team bus before driving everybody home and doing the laundry.
“Coach just puts me wherever he wants, so I get out there a lot,” Hinkle said. “It means a lot. This is our rival team. We knew they were going to be good competition so we gave it all we had.”
The Cardinals had an opportunistic defense that earned six fumble recoveries. The ball often left Woodland Christian with a short field, and the Cardinals capitalized. Hinkle was mostly a nonfactor early in the game, not even touching the ball in the first quarter. Teammates Keigi Kungu and Daniel Naschke (who had two touchdown runs) carried most of the load early in the run-heavy attack. The Cardinals built a 28-8 lead in the middle of the second quarter as Hinkle went 45 yards on a reception.
“He is electrifying. He’s a great kid. We’re blessed to have him,” coach Paschke said.
The Saints weren’t knocked out by early mistakes and the Cardinals’ imposing lead. They clawed back to a 28-14 halftime deficit and made it 28-20 on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter on a 20-yard reverse from Giancarlo Viramontes.
Following a defensive stop, Delta needed nine plays to move to the Woodland Christian 5-yard line. Just a few feet from tying the game, the Saints fumbled again.
“That was ridiculous. It killed us,” co-head coach Tim Rapp said. “Think about that score, six turnovers to zero? You’re not gonna win too many games if you lose that many. … We haven’t had fumbles like that all season and they’re very well-coached defensively, ripping the ball out.”
Rapp cited the play of quarterback Jake Feldheim, who threw for four touchdowns, for helping keep his team in the game. Hunter Binns had a standout night on defense and 6-foot-7 tight end Jack Mcallister played hurt but still was almost indefensible. Minus the turnovers, the message the Delta players got was that they could have knocked off Woodland Christian. The Saints scored with 21 seconds left and nearly recovered an onside kick.
“We can beat them and they know they can beat them now. They’ve been the Goliath forever now,” Rapp said.
The Cardinals defense gave up as many points to Delta as it allowed in the first five games of the season. The team’s goal, Hinkle said, is the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. There’s still a tough game with Foresthill on the schedule, but Paschke was thankful to leave Clarksburg with a win Friday night.
“Way too stressful,” he said. “We were just short guys this week. We kept working and the important thing is we got the W. ...
“This is an important win for playoff seeding. Going forward, it’s just confidence. Hey, we know we can play with anyone right now.”