Leesville claims 3-4A title
Published 2:21 am Saturday, October 30, 2021
- Leesville senior running back Caleb Gallashaw (14) breaks a tackle en route to positive yards in the Wampus Cats' win over Tioga on Friday, 34-7. (Photo courtesy of Melinda Martinez)
By Daniel Green
TIOGA — The first mission has been accomplished.
The Leesville Wampus Cats won the District 3-4A championship on Friday night for the fourth time in six seasons, downing the Tioga Indians, 34-7.
“I’m really proud of our kids,” Leesville head coach Robbie Causey said. “Tioga is a well-coached football team and they always give us fits. They forced us to battle hard.”
With the victory, Leesville closed out the regular season with a record of 7-2 overall, including a 4-0 mark in district play. The Cats will take Week 10 off and won’t return to action until the first round of the playoffs on Nov. 12.
The Wampus Cats rank 13th in the Class 4A power rankings, but that is certain to change over the next week or so. But it does look as if Leesville will be hosting a first-round playoff game.
The Cats jumped out on Tioga (3-6, 2-1) early on as they used a little trickery to take the early lead. After driving into Indian territory, Daveion Grubb took the reverse handoff and promptly launched a 34-yard TD pass to Ke’Mhari Pruitt for a 7-0 Leesville advantage.
A little later, on fourth and short, Parker Maks bulled his way into the endzone for a 17-yard TD run and a 14-0 lead. The score remained that way until late in the third quarter when Tioga scored on a long run to cut the gap to 14-7.
However, Leesville salted the game away in the fourth as Maks scored from a yard out, followed up by touchdown runs from Caleb Gallashaw and Layne Self to account for the final margin of victory.
Gallashaw toted the rock 29 times for 245 yards, while Maks rushed for 28 yards and two scores.
