Defeat at Cabot re-opens questions for Wildcats

Sophomore quarterback Sharmon Rester saw his first action of the season Friday in El Dorado’s 35-14 loss at Cabot. Rester rushed for 100 yards on six carries with a touchdown.

With an off-week before the conference opener against Lake Hamilton, El Dorado coach Steven Jones wasn’t ready to talk about the Wildcats’ starting quarterback.

“I’m not going to comment on that tonight,” Jones said early Saturday morning after the team arrived home from the Cabot trip. “We’ve got a week off next week. We’ll have an answer to that going into Lake Hamilton.”

Junior Eli Shepherd has started all three games for the 1-2 Wildcats. An injury to senior running back Alex Hicks forced El Dorado to alter its game plan.

“Alex Hicks went out the third play of the game and he sat the rest of the night. We played Eli in the first quarter. Midway in the second quarter, we brought Sharmon in. He made some plays for us,” Jones said. “They both got to play in the second half. We just tried to go, at that point, with the hot hand.

“Game plan changed a little bit after Hicks went out. We adjusted to it and did what we could.”

Hicks, who had 44 carries for 270 yards a week earlier against Fairview, was originally diagnosed with an ankle sprain. He will receive treatment over the weekend as will senior defensive end Quentin Frazier.

“He felt a lot better when we got home tonight,” Jones said of Frazier. “He’ll be kind of day-to-day next week. We got some guys banged up, so we’ll come in Sunday and get treatment with our trainer. I think we’ll have everybody back by the time we start conference play.”

The Wildcats were tied 14-14 late in the half. Jones said miscues in the third quarter allowed the game to get away from them.

“I’m still pleased with their effort. We definitely played hard for four quarters. As far as where we’re at, going into conference play, we kind of know what we have to work on and we’ll harp on that for the next two weeks,” said Jones, who described the mood of his team during the bus ride home.

“There was some disappointment in the loss. But they understand we played a very tough non-conference schedule to get us ready for 6A play. We feel like we’re ready.”