Tharptown tops Mt. Hope 22-7

By Staff
Scot Beard
THARPTOWN – The Tharptown football team knew this would be a season of firsts when the school year began.
The Wildcats began their first year of region play with their first group of senior leaders.
Now, after four losses to region opponents to start the season, Tharptown has its first victory over a region foe thanks to a 22-7 victory at Mount Hope.
"Now I know how Noah must have felt when he saw the rainbow," Tharptown coach Barry Laster said. "The defense came through for us. The first half was a battle, in the second half, they increased their intensity."
The Wildcats fell behind 7-0 in the first quarter, but did not stay down for long.
Manny Ricardo pulled in a 9-yard pass from Brandon Cothrum for a touchdown and Jacob Parker ran the ball into the end zone on the two-point conversion to give the Wildcats the lead for good.
Tharptown drove inside the Mount Hope 1-yard line before halftime, but the clock ran out before the Wildcats could run a play.
The Wildcats padded the lead in the third with a 13-yard touchdown run by Cothrum and a 4-yard scoring run by Nathan Gray to push the lead to 22-7.
Mount Hope reached the Tharptown 3-yard line late in the game, but the Wildcat defense held strong and kept the Yellow Jackets from cutting into the lead.
"It feels good (to get the win), especially as a (sophomore)," Cothrum said. "We had more speed at receiver than their defensive backs had."
The Wildcats will now turn their focus towards Brilliant for this week's game. It will be Tharptown's homecoming game and Laster is hoping his team will use the Mount Hope victory to propel the Wildcats to their second win of the season.
"They're pumped up pretty good," Laster said. "We talked about keeping the intensity from last Friday through this week. It was a much-needed win."