A one-win South Haven squad gave Three Rivers all it could handle Friday night, but the Wildcats pulled away in the second half and left town with a 34-20 victory. Three Rivers improved to 5-3 overall and has a trip to Vicksburg (3-5) next week with a playoff bid on the line.
Quarterback Alex Cottingham scored on a two-yard run and hit Kyle Walczak on a 19-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. The Rams tied the game at 14-14 with a 62-yard bomb with 15 seconds left in the half.
An eight-yard Bailey Miholer-Wortinger run with 5:46 to play in the third stanza broke the deadlock and put the Wildcats out front for good. Cottingham tacked on a 21-yard scoring play on a pass to Walczak in the fourth quarter before Ray King put the game out of reach with a 35-yard TD run with 46 seconds remaining.
Cottingham was 9-of-15 passing for 133 yards and he added 23 rushing yards on six carries. King climbed to 118 yards with his final scamper and finished with 20 carries. Miholer-Wortinger churned out 72 yards on 16 carries.
Walczak collected 68 yards on five receptions to lead the Wildcats, which outgained South Haven 346-234. The Rams were penalized 13 times for 146 yards and were intercepted by Three Rivers’ Miholer-Wortinger and Johnel Stewart.
Full results can be found on the Scoreboard page.
Zak Zagon paced the team defensively with 5 tackles, followed by Trevor Keo (four stops and a sack) and Cotthingham (three tackles and a sack).
Photos by Stacy O’Hara