After a 28-21 loss to the Creighton Prep Jr Jays, the Wildcats fell to 2-3 on the season, a far cry from last year’s abysmal season. After already matching their total win count from last year, the Wildcats look to be a good spot to continue the long streak of making the state playoffs.

The star of the show is once again senior running back Nathan Pederson, with nearly 1,000 rushing yards on the season, but the biggest storyline is the other Peterson in the backfield, sophomore quarterback BrodyPeterson.

“Me and Pedey (Pederson) have a pretty good relationship,” Peterson said. “Makes things a lot easier when he can run for 200 (yards), catch a few passes and pass block.”

Peterson has also had a superb season for a young QB, and has really shown how dual threat he is. Passing for 471 yards with just 66 total attempts, he has improved drastically from being thrusted into the starting lineup last year, following injuries. And as of late he has taken more time in the pocket, and matured as a QB, scrambling for 63 yards so far.

Also improving last year has been the defense, and really have shown their strength in the secondary. Besides an outlying game against Millard South, in which the Wildcats lost 46-7 and gave up 191 yards in the air, they have played lock-down as a unit. Juniors Reid Hazen, Keegan Mountain and Brady Brau all have at least one interception on the season.

“(My relationship with Mountain) has grown a lot as we now both play the same position,” Brau said. “I am confident as I believe that we have a solid team and can make it far in the playoffs.”

The optimism isn’t just in the players, but also in the coaching staff as well. With COVID-19 playing a huge role in the drop off from last year, but as defensive coach Chad Young said about the team, there are a lot of unknowns in general.

“Hard to compare from year to year, this is probably the most difficult schedule we have had so our record doesn’t indicate how good I think we can be,” Young said. “We were hoping to have a little better record at this point, though we knew it was going to be a tough schedule to get through.”

While there is little time in the season to pull away to try and advance to state, there is still a lot of optimism. Many fans are quite happy with the increase of quality of play, and I myself am impressed with the team. The way they have handled adversity, and bounce back every week is something that cannot be measured in gold. Slowly, but surely, this team will rise from the ashes as the dominant Wildcats we know.