CLARKSTON — The Oxford Wildcats? offense showed some life on Friday and put a scare into the Clarkston Wolves for a half.
Unfortunately, the Wolves roared back in the second and stopped any hopes Oxford had of derailing the defending state champions. Clarkston relied on three big plays in the fourth quarter to score 21 points and win going away 44-24.
Oxford led 14-7 midway through the second quarter. The Cats? first score came on an 11-yard pass reception by Ryan Motalo with 1:26 remaining in the first quarter.
Brenden Lewis then caught a 55-yard TD with 7:58 left in the second quarter.
Michael Mielnicki’s extra points put the Wildcats up 14-7.
The Wolves tied the game at 14-14 at the 5:30 mark of the quarter and then got a safety on a muffed punt with less than a minute before half to take a 16-14 lead.
Clarkston scored on an eight-yard run at 8:08 of the third quarter to go up 23-14.
Oxford’s Mielnicki booted a 27-yard field goal at the 10:42 mark of the fourth quarter to narrow the gap to 23-17.
Just 16 seconds after the field goal, Clarkston’s Michael Fluegel scampered for a 66-yard TD.
Fleugel then scored on a 36-yard run just two minutes later and the Wolves had a 37-17 advantage. Fluegel finished with 199 yards rushing.
Clarkston scored again at the 2:40 mark of the fourth quarter.
Oxford scored its final TD with 54 seconds left on a 21-yard TD catch by Mielnicki, who then added the extra point.
The Wildcats controlled the ball for most of the game, holding the ball for 12 more minutes than Clarkston. The Wildcats also had 16 first downs to the Wolves? 15 and had 375 yards of offense.
Included in that offense for Oxford were 189 yards passing on 10-18 accuracy and three TDs for the Oxford quarterbacks.
Ethan Williams led the Cats rushing with 103 yards on 17 carries. Wyatt Harden added 72 yards on 17 carries.
Linebacker Campbell Coker led the Cats on defense. Louis Urban and Michael Abbott also contributed on defense.
The loss dropped Oxford to 1-4 overall and 1-3 in the OAA Red.
The Wildcats will host Troy at 7 p.m. on Friday in the annual homecoming game.