KDH Pressbox

BELTON — Some of the mistakes were gone.

The losing streak is still there, though.

At times Friday, Shoemaker looked like it was going to hang with defending District 12-5A co-champion Belton.

However, David Ash threw three touchdown passes in the third quarter and the Grey Wolves lost to Belton 44-21 at Tiger Stadium.
The loss was Shoemaker's 18th straight.

"It was still a couple of turnovers," said Shoemaker coach Ken Gray. "They are a good offensive football team. They can go out and score. We knew that going in … but I was pleased.

"We moved the ball and we scored. That is something we hadn't done a lot this year."

With the six total touchdown passes, Ash broke his single season record and also tied his single game record. He finished the game 17-of-30 passing for 285 yards and had one interception. Ash threw 23 touchdown passes last year, but has already thrown 24 this season with four regular season games left.

"Shoemaker plays a lot of man coverage and when you do that if one guy messes up it's a touchdown," Ash said. "I thought we ran the ball really well this week and something I have been excited about the last couple of weeks … (now) they can't just pin their ears back and come after me."

The second touchdown pass was the most impressive.

Adrian Henderson leaped at the back of the end zone and caught Ash's pass at the peak of his jump for the score. It was Ash's second touchdown pass in less than three minutes. The first was a 17-yard pass to Jonathan Paysse in the corner of the end zone.

The two scores put Belton (2-4, 2-0 12-5A) up 14-0 early.

However, Shoemaker's (0-6, 0-3) first highlight was a good one, too.

After Belton unsuccessfully tried an onside kick, Jammie Blunt found Tim Hollingshed wide open in the middle of the field for a 45-yard touchdown pass.

"I am scratching my head on a couple of those plays," Southern said. "It was penalties … and I put our defense in a bad spot with something coverage-wise and they were confused.

"Otherwise, we did not play that bad."

The score cut the Tigers' lead in half, 14-7, and for a while it looked like the mistakes were really over for the Grey Wolves.

Later in the quarter, Shoemaker drove down to the Belton 28, but a Blunt fumble ended the drive and their chance at tying the game.

Belton then churned its way down the field as Ash led the Tigers on a 14-play, 74-yard drive that resulted in a 9-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Shuler.

Shoemaker responded with its own drive, though — even if it was aided by three Belton penalties for 30 yards.

The legs of Blunt did the rest. Blunt carried four times for 37 yards and scored on a 7-yard scamper up the middle for the score.

The five-play, 77-yard drive cut the Tiger lead to 21-13.

"We are getting better … we fumbled twice and that gave them a short field," Gray said. "In the third quarter that took forever, we did not get very far."

However, Belton got going quickly in the second half.

Ash threw 60 yards in the air to Wolf Mahler, whose arms stretched out and pulled the ball in for the 56-yard score. Then Ash found Henderson again, this time for a 21-yard touchdown strike.

Belton's third touchdown pass of the quarter was a 10-yarder to Paysse.

Eventually, Shoemaker tied its season high for points with 21 thanks to the scrambling ability of Blunt. The senior quarterback darted around the left side for a 15-yard run for the touchdown and converted the two-point conversion with a run up the middle.

"I wish we had not given up that last one," Southern said. "… But, at this point I just want to win."