By Jeremy Martin

For West Seattle High School, Friday night’s gridiron tilt against Ingraham began a season ending three week stand at the South West Athletic Complex.

The game also represented another difficult learning experience for the young Wildcat Club as the team dropped a 12-6 overtime heartbreaker to the Rams.

Emmery Porter scored his second rushing touchdown of night on Ingraham’s first overtime snap, a 25 yard draw up the middle.

The Wildcats had led for three quarters and seemed to be on their way to its second win of the season until Porter rattled off a 76 yard touchdown run with only 2:30 left in the game, knotting the score at 6.

Prior to Porter’s long breakaway, the Wildcats missed a field goal that would have effectively iced the contest, however the wide right kick was quickly followed by the massive scoring strike that allowed the Rams to knot the contest and take the game into overtime.

“It’s going to take a while, but when we look back, the fighting and battling is going to help. Going down slugging is better than going down giving up,” Wildcats head coach Tom Burggraff said.

What had been a ground based, defensive stalemate early on was turned on its head with 1:40 remaining in the first half when Wildcat safety Carter Golgart picked off a Paul Anderson Pass deep in Wildcat territory.

Riding the newfound momentum, quarterback Robert Harrelson found Golgart on a forty yard sideline rout, which the sophomore pulled in while falling out of bounds.

Moments later Harrelson rolled right from the Ingraham 15 and hit Fynniecko Glover downfield who scampered into the end zone, breaking the tie and giving West Seattle a 6-0 lead that it would take into halftime.

The touchdown was the cherry on top of a strong stat line for Glover who racked up 111 yards rushing on 20 carries along with 18 yards and a touchdown receiving.

Harrelson, a sophomore, making his first career start ended the game 9-18 passing for 123 yards.

“He’s a first year player, has a decent arm. He gives us a chance to put one of our better athletes (Golgart, who had been playing quarterback) out there at receiver where he is comfortable. He did a good job,” Burggraff said.

Many of Harrleson’s passes headed in the direction of Golgart who finished the game with 75 yards receiving to go along with his stout play in the defensive backfield.

Ingraham looked to knot things up going into the final quarter following a 21 yard end around from the Ram’s Nate Han and a fifteen yard facemask penalty against West Seattle but with only three ticks left on the clock, a Kentrel Adams fumble was picked up off the ground by Nate Kemp, giving the Wildcats possession headed into the fourth.

The Wildcats showed its youth in losing 70 yards on 8 penalties, including forcing itself into a 4th and 48 late in the third quarter, aided by three penalties and a Harrelson swing pass to Glover that lost seven yards.

The Rams too had some inconsistent moments, racking up 7 penalties for -50 yards.

Despite the miscues, many of which came from motion on the offensive line, Ingraham was able to mount a fairly consistent rushing game which was led by Porter’s 132 yards and two scores.

The air attack however was less productive as Anderson was unable to connect on any of his five passes.

Adams was replaced in the second half by Ryan Kyle who also failed to connect on a pass.

The Wildcats had a chance to hop on the scoreboard in the first quarter when junior Carter Mensing lined up for a 35 yard field goal, however a low snap forced the kicker to abandon the play and he was taken down for a loss of ten.

The loss, though difficult to stomach, does for such a young club, come with a lesson.

“They learn that they never give up, they’re wonderful young men. Most of them have never experienced a season, everything is new to them, they’re getting mental toughness, fighting battles and learning how to fight through adversity, it will serve them well,” Burggraff said.

The Wildcats will be back in action next Friday against Chief Sealth.