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Conotton Valley airs it out, beats Frontier 46-19

By Jordan Holland 5 min read

NEW MATAMORAS -- After a hot start to the season, Frontier hit a bit of a speed bump in the form of the Conotton Valley Rockets.

CVHS quarterback Kaden Leggett threw for 378 yards and five touchdowns to help lead his team to a 46-19 win Friday night, spoiling homecoming for the now 5-2 Cougars.

"I liked our scheme and our preparation, we just didn't execute," said Frontier head coach Damon Metheny. "A lot of guys we had in hadn't played a lot because, with a lot of throwing going on, we wanted more athletes out there. A lot of those guys were newer to the field and they just made a lot of mental errors."

Frontier was flagged 12 times in the game, which has been an ongoing issue this season, for 85 yards and committed four turnovers. The Cougars forced a three-and-out on Conotton Valley's opening drive after a sack by Hunter Dunn, but the short punt was mishandled by Frontier and the Rockets fell on it.

Seven plays later, Leggett threw his first TD of the game, a 23-yarder to Garrett Reiter, and the Rockets never looked back.

"That was a huge swing of momentum," Metheney said. "We had stopped them, and if we were able to get the ball back and score first, that was what we wanted to do."

Leggett, who finished 21 for 27 and was intercepted once by Davyn Ferrell, threw TDs to RJ Higgenbotham (18 yards) and Nick Bolin (19 yards) and Conotton Valley went 3 for 3 on two-point tries to build a 24-0 lead at just the 7:19 mark in the second.

The Cougars battled their way back, finding the end zone twice before the half, to cut it to 24-12. Luke Mendenhall connected with Phoenix Nedley on a 62-yard catch and run for a score, and Mendenhall ran in it himself from 3 yards out with just 16 seconds left in the half.

However, Frontier's momentum came to a screeching halt when Leggett connected with Bolin on a 56-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the second half to make it 30-12.

Later, Higgenbotham ran for an 18-yard touchdown and Bolin caught his third TD, a 67-yarder, to establish a running clock.

"Our guys have really blended together this year," said Conotton Valley head coach Derek O'Hara, whose team improved to 5-2. "They've jelled. We've put a lot of work and a lot of time in. They're executing on a high level right now. I'm proud of them. This is a team win. There's a lot of guys that stepped up for us. (Frontier) tried to take away some things early, and other guys stepped up and made big plays for us. That was huge."

Mendenhall ran for his second 3-yard touchdown with 2:40 left in the game, finishing with 42 yards on 15 carries. He was 11 for 20 through the air for 147 yards. He was intercepted twice by Jack Owens. Austyn Kephart carried seven times for 50 yards. Nedley finished with four catches for 58 yards.

"We've hurt ourselves a lot this season with penalties and mistakes," Metheney said. "We did that early in the game and it just put us in a hole that we weren't able to climb out of."

Coming into the week, Frontier was rated seventh in Region 27 while the Rockets were 12th. Both teams are hopeful of earning a top-eight seed and hosting at least one postseason game.

"This was a big one," O'Hara said. "Our guys had this circled. We knew they were 5-1. We knew with playoff positioning -- they're goal is to get another home playoff game, and this puts us in a pretty good position. Proud of them for stepping up and executing tonight."

Bolin finished with 162 yards on five catches while Reiter added 106 yards on seven receptions. The Rockets totaled 413 yards of offense.

For the Cougars, who finished with 249 total yards, Friday's result is discouraging, but everything they've set out to accomplish is still out in front of them. A win over any of their final three opponents -- Cameron (4-1), Shenandoah (4-3) and River (7-0) -- could be enough to bring postseason football back to New Matamoras.

"Like I told the guys, I think we've just got to win one more game to get probably a home field (playoff) game," Metheney said. "We've got three great teams ahead of us. We're going to take it one week at a time with Cameron. There's a lot of excitement heading into next week. We're going to learn from the penalties and mistakes and carry that over."

Contact Jordan Holland at jholland@mariettatimes.com.

Conotton Valley 46, Frontier 19

C (5-2) 16 8 22 0 -- 46

F (5-2) 0 12 0 7 -- 19

C: Garrett Reiter 21 pass from Kaden Leggett, Reiter run, 5:03 1st

C: RJ Higgenbotham 18 pass from Leggett, Higgenbotham pass from Leggett, 1:12 1st

C: Nick Bolin 19 pass from Leggett, Higgenbotham pass from Leggett, 7:19 2nd

F: Phoenix Nedley 62 pass from Luke Mendenhall, run failed, 6:02 2nd

F: Mendenhall 3 run, pass failed, :16 2nd

C: Bolin 56 pass from Leggett, pass failed, 11:45 3rd

C: Higgenbotham 18 run, Graycen Grezlik pass from Leggett, 5:14 3rd

C: Bolin 67 pass from Leggett, Higgenbotham pass from Leggett, 2:36 3rd

F: Mendenhall 3 run, Preston Binegar kick, 2:40 4th

Team stats

Conotton Valley: First downs: 11; Rushes-yards: 22-35; Passing yards: 378; Total yards: 413; Passing: 2127-0; Fumbles-lost: 0-0; Penalties-yards: 7-65; Punts-average: 2-26.5

Frontier: First downs: 7; Rushes-yards: 24-102; Passing yards: 147; Total yards: 249; Passing: 11-20-2; Fumbles-lost: 3-2; Penalties-yards: 12-85; Punts-average: 2-34

Individual stats

Conotton Valley: Rushing: Garrett Reiter 7-28; RJ Higgenbotham 3-25, TD; Kaden Leggett 7-(-6); TEAM 3-(-3); Garrett Fierbaugh 1-(-4); Jase Williams 1-(-5); Passing: Leggett 21-27-1, 378 yards, 5 TDs; Receiving: Nick Bolin 5-162, 3 TDs; Reiter 7-106, TD; Higgenbotham 3-55, TD; Graycen Grezlik 3-30; Jack Owens 2-25

Frontier: Rushing: Austyn Kephart 7-50; Luke Mendenhall 15-42, 2 TDs; Caden Barrows 2-10; Passing: Mendenhall 11-20-2, 147 yards, TD; Receiving: Phoenix Nedley 4-58, TD; Barrows 4-32; Kephart 2-37; Davyn Ferrell 1-18

Next games: Crestline at Conotton Valley; Cameron at Frontier

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