A very postive outing for Neuqua Valley

Negative 100.

It sounds like the average high temperature on a frigid January day at the Arctic Circle, but on Friday night at Neuqua Valley that number had another meaning. It was the rushing yardage that the Wildcats "allowed" to visiting East Aurora (which had -44 yards total) as Neuqua opened the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division portion of its schedule with a dominating 43-0 victory.

The reaction to that number was first amazement, then understatement, from Neuqua coach Bryan Wells.

"Negative 100 yards rushing?" he wondered when informed of the staggering stat. "I thought we played pretty well defensively."

For the game, the Tomcats (0-4, 0-2) totaled 22 running plays and only four of them resulted in positive yardage, with the longest gain 4 yards. The Wildcats (3-1, 1-0) also recorded 4 sacks, forced 5 fumbles and had defensive back Sami Khalil return an interception 35 yards for a touchdown.

"Our biggest opponent was ourselves," said defensive end Michael Ippolito, who had one of the sacks and was in the Tomcats backfield all night. "We just had to keep our heads high throughout practice this week and it showed in our performance."

The Tomcats did have one scoring chance late in the first quarter when Laquan Brown hooked up with Mike Thomas for a 48-yard gain to the Neuqua eight, but on the next snap a Brown fumble was recovered by the Wildcats at the 18.

Offensively, the Wildcats did have a couple hiccups, with one drive thwarted by a pair of holding penalties, quarterback Jeff Samuel getting picked off in the East Aurora end zone by Chris Shaw and Trent Snyder losing a fumble in Tomcat territory.

Outside of those miscues, though, the offense was also dominant, rolling up 269 yards on the ground - with Snyder totaling 110 - with Jack Norgaard opening the scoring with a 3-yard run, Samuel hooking up with Jeff Evak for a 32-yard score, Vai Suliafu notching a pair of 10-yard trips to paydirt and Branden Fatla rumbling in from 16 yards out for a 34-0 third-quarter lead before Kahlil's interception return and a safety closed out the scoring.

Now the Wildcats can look forward to what should be a key conference clash next week when they travel to meet South Elgin. It will not only allow one team to lay down an early marker in the Upstate Eight Valley race, but it also is a chance for the Wildcats to exact a measure of revenge for last season's 28-26 loss to the Storm.

"We're going to get started on Monday; there's no turning back now," said Ippolito. "Our team is looking really good, our confidence is up and we just have to focus next week on South Elgin."