MONTGOMERY CITY — Surviving a Highway 19 cat fight the previous Friday against Cuba’s Wildcats at Bearcat Memorial Stadium in the first round of the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) Class 2, District 2 Football Tournament, Jed Leeper’s Hermann’s Bearcats trekked across the Missouri River bridge into Montgomery County to face the top-seed host Wildcats last Friday night.

Hermann entered the game looking to avenge a 26-18 loss to Montgomery County back during week one of the regular season.

Forcing Montgomery County into a turnover-on-downs after their first possession, Hermann seized the early momentum.

After two Bearcat punts and a Wildcat punt sandwiched in between them, Montgomery County scored the first of their 44 unanswered points in the first half on a Lafe McCurdy 48-yard touchdown run at the 2:23 mark of the first quarter.

Jackson Benney’s pass to Mac Farrar for two points gave the host Wildcats an 8-0 lead before going on to end Hermann’s season at 2-9 following a 44-7 district semifinal loss.

“Our guys played hard, we just gave up too many big plays against a good Montgomery County team,” Leeper said.

Before Hermann fans could blink, they saw Montgomery County use a high snap on a punt, a fourth-down conversion and big plays throughout the second quarter into five touchdowns with the last coming on a 25-yard interception return.

During the second half, Hermann’s defense kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard thanks to a Roman Martin interception at the 2:35 mark of the third quarter.

Hermann scored their lone touchdown of the game just past the midway point of the fourth quarter when Aiden Eikermann scampered 56 yards to the end zone.

Martin’s extra point gave the Bearcats their seventh point of the game at the 5:00 mark of the fourth quarter.

On the ground, the Bearcats were led by Kohlt Witthaus with 83 yards rushing on nine carries followed by 58 yards rushing and a touchdown on three carries from Eikermann.

Trent Chasteen also had three carries for six yards rushing.

Witthaus was also 3-15 passing with 14 yards through the air.

Chasteen led Bearcat receivers against a stingy Wildcat secondary with one catch for 12 yards.

In the tackling department, Eikermann led the Bearcat defense with 13 total tackles with 10 of those being solo.

Sawyer Moore and Witthaus each added seven tackles followed by Brady Traub with six total tackles.

Martin threw in five tackles to go with his second-half interception for the Bearcats.

Ashton Rucker and Tayven Hopkins each added four tackles to go along with three each from Cole Brinker and John Gleeson.

Chasteen also record two solo tackles for the Hermann defense.

Montgomery County will host Bowling Green this Friday night for the Class 2, District 2 championship beginning at 7 p.m.