MCKENZIE, Tenn. –The Bethel Wildcats dropped their fourth straight game Saturday falling in overtime to the visiting Campbellsville Tigers 43-37.
Keanu Young gave the Tigers a 6-0 lead at the 12:23 mark of the first quarter with a 54-yard pass reception from quarterback Hunter Brown. Bradley Bates knocked in the point after for the 7-0 lead. Bethel answered with a 43-yard pass play from Sam Castronova to Christian Burney to make it 7-6 at the 9:30 mark. Dalton McCann tied the game at seven with the point after. With 40 seconds left in the first stanza Bethel's Taye Davis capped off a seven play 59- yard drive with a one yard run. McCann's point after gave Bethel the 14-7 lead.
McCann hit a 28-yard field goal early in the second quarter to up the Wildcat lead to 17-7. The Tigers followed with two impressive drives of 63 and 77 yards. Campbellsville's Brown and Wade Holtsclaw had short touchdown runs to cap off those drives and hand the Tigers a 21-17 lead at the break.
Marvin Rudd caught a Castronova pass at the 9:52 mark of the third quarter to give Bethel a 23-21 lead. The point after failed. Brown hit Zerric Willis on a 44-yard pass play for a score and CU led 27-23. CU's point after failed. With the lead the Tigers appeared to be in good shape moving the ball down field late in the third quarter. Bethel's defense stepped up with a stop and forced a 30-yard field goal attempt. Bethel's Karrheem Darrington blocked the attempt by Bates. Demetrice Gilbert scooped up the ball and raced 70 yards for a Cat touchdown to give Bethel a 30-27 lead.
Early in the fourth quarter Octavian Gilbert gave the Wildcats a 37-27 lead. The Tigers answered with a six play 87- yard drive and a 21 yard touchdown by Holtsclaw to cut the lead to 37-34. The Wildcats took over with 4:37 left in the game and it looked like Bethel was in good shape moving the ball into Campbellsville territory. With Davis in the Wildcat formation the snap sailed over his head and CU recovered in Bethel territory. Campbellsville moved the ball downfield and tied the game on a 26-yard field goal by Bates with just 25 seconds left in regulation.
The teams went to overtime tied at 37.
In the overtime Bethel failed on a fourth and one at the CU 16-yard line to open the overtime. Campbellsville's Chantz Goodman won the game with a 20-yard touchdown run a few plays later.
Campbellsville had 540 total yards. Bethel had a season high 479. CU had a 193-168 advantage in rushing yards. The Tigers had 347 yards in the air to Bethel's 311. Brown was 21-of-39 in the air for the 347 yards and two scores. Castronova was 19-of-32 for 311 yards and two TD's. Goodman led the Tigers with 121 yards while Davis led Bethel with 63 yards. Young had career high 11 catches for 200 yards for the Tigers. Burney caught eight passes for 99 yards for the Wildcats. Justin Manning led the Tigers with 16 total tackles. Eriq Hicks and Darrington led the Wildcats with eight total tackles each.
The Wildcat dropped to 1-4 on the season while Campbellsville remained undefeated at 3-0. It was the first MSC Bluegrass Divisional game of the year for both teams.
Coach Chris Elliott addressed the loss. "Our guys played well at times and had a chance to win. We asked our guys to play hard and I thought they did. We tried to put in some wrinkles on offense to shake things up and it helped. Mistakes just killed us at times. With a ten point fourth quarter lead we put ourselves in position to win but simply didn't do it. Mental mistakes also hurt us and we have to clean those up quickly. We have five games left and still a lot of football to play so we will get back to it and prepare for a tough Georgetown squad."
Bethel plays host to # 12 Georgetown Saturday with kick-off scheduled for 1:30 p.m. It will be Homecoming for Bethel.
