The Montgomery County football team celebrated another homecoming victory on Oct. 4.

The Wildcats picked up their first win of the season after cruising past the Mark Twain Tigers 40-16 at Jim Blacklock Field. It’s the sixth year in a row MCHS won a game on its homecoming night.

“For a lot of us, just getting the win, no matter what day it was on, was going to be big for us,” MCHS coach John Klekamp said.

The Wildcats lost their first five games before getting the win over Mark Twain. They also beat the Tigers for the second year in a row.

“Our season started the way no one’s season wanted to start, 0-1, 0-2, 0-3, 0-4 and 0-5,” MCHS senior Jacob Hogue said. “We had some ups and we had a lot of downs. Tonight, we had a pretty game of ups.”

Now, the Wildcats are hoping to pull off some more wins as their regular season comes down to its final three weeks. MCHS travels to Bowling Green in a Week 7 game on Oct. 11, followed by a home game against Wright City on Oct. 18 and a road game against Louisiana on Oct. 25.

“We got to have the want,” Hogue said. “We came into our first game and a lot of us were like, ‘We’re missing so much. We don’t have the guys who can play these spots.’ We got so wrapped around that we never had any want for the game. But I think we’re starting to get some grit and get some want. I think we got them.”

Bowling Green will take a 6-0 record into its contest with the Wildcats. The Bobcats beat Van-Far 52-6 in a Week 6 game on Oct. 4.

The Wildcats played their last three games on the road before their home game with Mark Twain. They lost to North Callaway, South Callaway and Van-Far, all three teams have winning records. MCHS began its season with back-to-back home losses to Hermann and Monroe City.

“Obviously, when you start off 0-5, it’s never fun,” Klekamp said. “We do have a lot of young guys from the standpoint of age because we’re playing a lot of sophomores. But we have a bunch of juniors. Although they’re juniors and upperclassmen, they haven’t played a lot of varsity football. We’re hoping to continue getting that experience and putting a better product out every week.”

The Wildcats lost a large group of players from last year’s team that finished 6-4, including two-time all-state performer Mason Leu, who is now playing at Culver-Stockton.

“We lost 13 starting seniors on our team between offense, defense and special teams,” Hogue said. “We lost some of the best receivers who ever came to the program and a quarterback who threw for over 2,000 yards last year. We had to replace all of those.”

In the contest against Mark Twain, Hogue scored three touchdowns, giving him eight on the season. Junior quarterback Adrian Combs scored a pair of touchdowns and junior Chase Queathem had a touchdown.

“We got a little bit creative offensively,” Klekamp said. “(Assistant) Coach (Joe) Basinger and I got a little bit creative. It worked out for us. We were able to move the football a lot and put up some points tonight.”

Hogue credits the offensive linemen of juniors Ashton Johnson, Aiden Christian and Colby Ellis and sophomore Tyler Rodgers for his effort.

“I believe it wouldn’t have been possible without them,” the senior said. “Touchdowns wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the guys up front.”

Combs gave the Wildcats a 12-0 lead on touchdowns of 15 yards and 12 yards, both in the first quarter.

Hogue scored a 75-yard touchdown on a kickoff return with just 17 seconds into the second quarter to extend MCHS’ lead to 20-8. He increased the lead to 26-8 on a 13-yard touchdown reception with 2:05 to go in the second.

With 55 seconds left in the third, Queathem intercepted a pass and scored a 45-yard touchdown to boost MCHS’ lead to 33-8. Hogue gave the Wildcats a 40-16 lead with a six-yard touchdown run with 8:19 remaining in the game.

Mark Twain dropped to 1-5.