Cayson Siegley

HARLETON – Cayson Siegley tossed three touchdown passes, and White Oak’s defense came up big late as the Roughnecks held on for a 20-16 win over the Harleton Wildcats on Friday at Wildcat Stadium in the season opener for both teams.

Harleton scored late and was driving for a potential go-ahead score before Rylan Friddell broke up a pass in the end zone as time expired to seal the victory for White Oak.

The Roughnecks broke a scoreless deadlock early in the second quarter, taking advantage of a muffed punt by Harleton to set up a short scoring drive from the Wildcats’ 18-yard line.

After Noah Carter made the recovery to put the Roughnecks in business, Siegley tossed a 13-yard touchdown strike to Dalton Morgan on the second play of the drive. The extra point failed, but White Oak led 6-0 with 9:10 left in the second quarter.

White Oak later used a Siegley pass to Dylan Creager to keep a drive alive, and then Siegley scrambled and connected with Holden Hodges for a 25-yard TD pass and a 12-0 lead with 5:28 left in the half.

Harleton had one solid drive in the opening half, moving 58 yards with the ball before the Roughnecks’ Julius Maddox came up with an interception to stop the march.

Both teams tacked on eight points in the third to give the Roughnecks a 20-8 cushion heading into the final stanza.

Harleton got on the board with 6:40 to play in the third when Jayden Johnson did some scoop-and-score action, picking up a fumble and racing 80 yards. Taber Childs added the 2-point conversion for the Wildcats to make it a 12-8 contest.

The fumble came after White Oak had gone on an 11-play drive.

A minute later, the Roughnecks were back on the board when Siegley connected with Sam Dusek in traffic for a 12-yard TD strike. Siegley then hit Luke Baker for the two-pointer and a 20-8 lead with 5:43 left in the third.

Harleton scored and converted for two with 4:58 left in the contest to pull to within 20-16, and had a late chance before Friddell came up with his big play to salvage the win.

The Wildcats scored on a 3-yard touchdown run by Van Ring and Childs added the two-pointer to cap a 65-yard drive. Zander Stroman had catches of 20 and 32 yards on the drive.

Harleton later got the ball on its own 29 with 45 seconds left and one timeout in the bank. The Wildcats picked up 24 on a pass from Carson Brown to Childs and 9 on a toss from Brown to Cameron Johnson, but the next attempt was knocked away in the end zone by Friddell to end it.

White Oak will host Ore City next week. Harleton plays host to Beckville.