With just under three minutes left in the third quarter, Ricky Zorn would connect with James Duke for a 20-yard touchdown pass. Zorn would finish the night with 113 yards passing and add another 105 yards on the ground.

The Duke TD tied the score at 10-10, and momentum clearly shifted in the ‘Cats favor. Duke played his best game of the season and saw action on both offense and defense in the second half.

The ‘Cats defense answered the bell in the next series and forced another three and out. Berkner just didn’t have an answer for the Wildcat’s intensity for the rest of the night. The mauling had begun.

Junior defensive lineman and team captain, Tre Stewart, commented on the defensive performance in the second half.

“Berkner is a good team, but you could see it in their faces in the second half," says Stewart. "They were just tired. We picked up the intensity every series, and they just couldn’t match us.”

The Wildcat offense was primed and ready to turn it up a notch as well.

Desmond Roland had a huge second half, due in part to a tie-breaking TD pass from Ricky Zorn (see 3 minute mark of highlight video).

On the scoring play, James Duke and Devante Sungwengham provided key blocks enabling Roland to take Zorn's 39-yard pass to the house. Roland would finish the night contributing 143 total yards on offense.

With the score now 17-10, the Wildcats had their first lead of the night with 10:45 to play in the fourth quarter.

The Jason Dann kickoff resulted in a touchback, and the ‘Cats intensity shined though again on the next play when the swarming defense forced a Berkner fumble.

Zorn and company weren’t able to convert the turnover into a touchdown, but Jason Dann picked up the slack and registered his second field goal on the night with a 37-yard kick. The ‘Cats had a ten point lead with just over 8 minutes remaining in the game.

Berkner would muster one more push for a late score, but their only sustained drive of the second half would stall out at the 28-yard line. On 4th down, Berkner brought out their field goal unit to try and stay within striking distance late in the fourth quarter.

Enter stage left, junior defensive back, Jalen Broussard. Broussard has been a quiet but solid contributor all season. That would change on the next play when Broussard blocked a critical Ram field goal attempt.

“We noticed they were blocking out on James (Duke) on their other field goal attempts," says Broussard of the blocked field goal. "So that opened up a gap for me to penetrate on the inside."

“I seriously can’t remember blocking the kick. I don’t think I realized it until I was already on the sideline and everyone was freaking out.”

While the ‘Cats had a little more work to do, the blocked field goal all but sealed the game for Coach Smith and his players. One final big run by Desmond Roland was icing on the cake.

“We finished against Berkner,” says Coach Smith. “We didn’t finish like we wanted to against Skyline, but we learned from that experience."

"This is a big win for us, and I’m extremely proud of these young men tonight.”

Wildcats face off against Richardson next Friday night at the Eagle/Mustang stadium. Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m.

GO 'CATS!