NEW CUMBERLAND — Injury-plagued Oak Glen faced one of the biggest challenges on its schedule Thursday night when the unbeaten Class A power Cameron Dragons visited the Bears Den in a first football meeting between the two schools.
Cameron, which has destroyed everything in its path this season and entered the battle averaging 41.6 points-per-game while surrendering just 8.25 points per contest, was true to form in posting a 28-0 win over the Golden Bears.
“Hats off to (the Dragons), they’re a good football team and they’ve got some athletes and I wish them the best in the playoffs,” said Oak Glen head coach Doug Taylor.
“Pretty happy with the win,” remarked Cameron head coach Tim Brown. “You know, coaches are never happy with your performance, because we had turnovers, we had penalties and we don’t like them. We’re going to go back to work and try to eliminate some of them.”
With the triumph, the Dragons improved their perfect mark to 9-0, while the Golden Bears, who have been beset by injuries to starters all season, fell to 2-7.
Cameron, which racked up 162 yards on the ground, was led by senior running back Payton Neely, who rushed for 101 yards on 13 carries and scored two rushing touchdowns and also caught a six-pointer.
“The O-line was great, I didn’t get touched,” said Neely afterward. “We were (unbeaten) last year and just fell short in the playoffs and we’re looking to go farther this year. We want to make it to (Wheeling) Island.”
Oak Glen stayed right with the Dragons in the first half, trailing just 6-0 at the break.
“Once again we’re down 6-0 at halftime and I thought we played a pretty good first half,” said Oak Glen’s Taylor.
The Dragons scored the lone touchdown of the first half when Neely took a handoff, cut right and out-raced the Golden Bears’ secondary 48 yards for a touchdown with no time left on the first-quarter clock. The Dragons’ PAT kick was wide left, leaving the visitors with a 6-0 lead.
The Cameron score was set up by an interception by Neely at the Cameron 10 and its offense capitalized, driving 90 yards for the score.
Oak Glen, which out-gained the Dragons 125-105 in the first half, had scoring chances in the opening 24 minutes but saw drives end at the Dragons’ 10 on the Neely interception and 38 after starting at their 26.
“We might have gotten a little greedy there, trying to open up our passing game a little bit and we were running the football well,” said Taylor. “It is what it is.”
But in the second half, Cameron’s defense held the Golden Bears to 25 yards of offense and registered several negative yardage plays against Oak Glen. Meanwhile, Cameron’s offense racked up 125 yards after intermission and controlled the clock.
“We just had to stop playing (not) to lose and play to win,” said Neely of the Dragons’ 20-point second half.
“In the second half it was a little different story,” said Taylor. “We got behind the sticks and when you do that it puts our offense in a bind.”
The Dragons got some breathing room on their first possession of the second half. After a short Oak Glen punt, the Dragons set up at the Oak Glen 31 and eventually scored on a three-yard quarterback keeper up the middle by Colson Wichterman. The score was set up by a key 33-yard pass from Wichterman to Cole Burkett at the 3. The visitors also added a two-point conversion on a run by Burkett, making it 14-0 at the 6:58 mark of the third.
“We spoke to the kids (at halftime) and my coaches do a great job of making adjustments,” said Brown. “We made a little bit of an adjustment on defense and on offense and things went well.”
After a bad Oak Glen punt snap forced a blocked punt at the Golden Bears’ three, the Dragons capitalized on a 5-yard run around left end by Neely, making it 20-0 at the 3:37 mark of the third. The conversion pass was intercepted by Greenlief.
“Payton is one of those guys that when he gets a little angry that’s a good thing for us because he really can play hard,” praised Brown. “We’ve got several kids like that, honestly, these guys respond, they’re mature and they say, you’re right coach, I’m messing up, and then they go hard.”
The Dragons upped their lead to 28-0 in the fourth quarter on a 24-yard scoring aerial from Wichterman to Neely. Mason Debolt caught the two-point conversion pass from Wichterman, making it 28-0 with 6:30 left.
“Overall these kids listen to you, they don’t say it’s not my fault, they say I did it wrong and I’m not going to do it again and I just love these kids because they just keep trying to find ways to win,” observes Brown.
Oak Glen senior running back Matt Greenlief led all Golden Bear rushers on the night with 85 yards on 17 carries.
Oak Glen has played a very challenging schedule this fall as seven of its 10 opponents have winning records.
“We knew it was going to be a tough schedule going in,” said Taylor. “I truly believe if we could have stayed healthy we would be a lot better off (record-wise). It’s just one of those deals where we’re constantly nicked up.”
The Golden Bears are idle next weekend but will visit Roane County to face the unbeaten Raiders (7-0), another new opponent on the Golden Bears’ schedule, on Nov. 4.
Meanwhile, Cameron is also idle next week but will be looking to close out a perfect regular season before it begins playoff action when the Dragons travel to Pendleton County Nov. 4 to play the Wildcats (4-3).
“We have two weeks to get ready for Pendleton,” said Brown. “That’s going to be another tough challenge.”
CAMERON 6 0 14 8 –28
OAK GLEN 0 0 0 0 –00
SCORING
CAM — Payton Neely, 48 run, :00 1st (Kick failed)
CAM — Colson Wichterman, 3 run, 6:58 3rd (Cole Burkett run)
CAM — Payton Neely, 5 run, 3:47 3rd (Pass failed)
CAM — Payton Neely 24 pass from Colson Wichterman, 6:30 4th (Mason Debolt pass from Colson Wichterman)
CAMERON OAK GLEN
First downs 13 9
Total yards 235 141
Rushes-yards 36-162 34-108
Passing 73 36
Comp-Att-Int 5-8-1 3-6-1
Punts 4-36 5-30
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-1
Penalties-Yards 3-25 6-45
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INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING — Cameron, Payton Neely 13-101, J. Ross 8-10, Cole Burkett 6-38, Colson Wichterman 7-3; Oak Glen, Matt Greenlief 17-85, Anthony Burt 10-25, Landon Beatty 6-minus 4, Aiden Flowers 3-2, Richmond 1-2
PASSING — Cameron, Colson Wichterman 5-8-73-1-1; Oak Glen, Landon Beatty 3-6-36-0-1
RECEIVING — Cameron, Payton Neely 2-31, Cole Burkett 2-35, Kason Angel 1-7; Oak Glen, Matt Greenlief 1-27, Anthony Burt 3-2, Logan Murray 1-7
FUMBLE RECOVERIES — Cameron, Kason Angel; Oak Glen, Tristin McCauley