Hennessey was possibly one snap away from essentially locking up a home playoff game.

Instead, the Eagles eventually headed back to north Kingfisher County with their first district loss of the season as Cashion prevailed in a 34-28 triple-overtime thriller.

The Wildcats’ Kellen Smith scored his third rushing touchdown of the night from a yard out in that third overtime to lift the Wildcats to the win.

It capped a wild night in which Cashion was held scoreless in the first half, led 21-7 in the fourth quarter and Hennessey roared back to force the overtime.

Both teams scored fairly easily in the first overtime session and both used their quarterbacks.

Hennessey went first and Levi Ferrell needed two rushes to score from the starting point of the 10 yard line.

Cashion matched it on the first play of its possession when Smith scored on a 10-yard run.

The Wildcats got it first in the second OT and failed to find the end zone in four tries.

That meant Hennessey needed any form of score - a TD or a field goal - to win the game.

And the Eagles were literally on the cusp of that as they used their power formation to run Ferrell to the left side twice to gain nine yards.

That left Hennessey with a third-and-goal from the Cashion 1 and seemingly one play away from winning the game.

But the Eagles were flagged for a false start prior to the snap, backing them up five yards. That was followed by a holding penalty and the drive eventually ended with a missed field goal.

That sent the game into the third overtime period in which Hennessey got the first crack again.

Grayson Davis put the Eagles behind the chains with a tackle for a four-yard loss and Hennessey never recovered as the drive ended without points.

Cashion’s drive also started poorly as the Wildcats got a delay of game penalty to put them at first-and-goal from the 15.

But Smith ran for 14 yards on first down and ended the game on the next run.

“I was just happy with our ability to finish in overtime,” Cashion coach Lynn Shackelford said.

“There were some opportunities for it to go south and our kids found a way.”

After the game, both Cashion and Hennessey were 5-3 overall and 4-1 in District 2A-II-1.

That leaves both teams behind Community Christian, which is undefeated on the season.

Hennessey hosts CCS this week and Cashion does the same in Week 10.

“It was definitely a tough one to swallow,” said Hennessey coach Mark Cox of the loss. “But we have to bounce back and keep moving forward and get ready to battle CCS this week.” Hennessey got a 5-yard touchdown from Ferrell in the second quarter in what proved to be the only points for either team in the first half.

Cashion roared back with 14 points in the second quarter and 21 unanswered overall.

“We stopped turning it over and killing drives with penalties,” said Shackelford of the second-half offensive success.

It’s also when Hank Brown broke loose.

The senior back scored on a 21-yard run and then on an 84-yard burst later in the quarter.

Cashion then took a 21-7 lead on Smith’s first touchdown, a 1-yard plunge with 9:35 to play.

But Hennessey didn’t fold.The Eagles went on a scoring drive that saw them get out of a 2nd-and-30 hole after consecutive holding calls.

The drive was aided by a 23-yard pass from Ferrell to Brytan Gardner and ended with Ferrell’s 5-yard TD run with 6:26 to play.

The Eagles’ onside kick attempt was unsuccessful, but Cashion couldn’t move the ball and was forced to punt.

Ferrell engineered the game-tying drive using passes of 30 yards to Beau Vinson and 28 yards to Gardner to get on the doorstep of the goal line.

Ferrell finished it off with a touchdown with 3:14 to play, which led to the overtime.

Despite the loss, Cox was proud of the Eagle comeback.

“Our kids showed a lot of toughness and resilience,” he said. “I couldn’t have been more proud of them after the game.”

Ferrell had a monster night.

The senior QB ran it 35 times for 138 yards and four touchdowns.

He was also 15 of 25 through the air for another 219 yards.

Gardner caught eight of those passes for 84 yards.

Copeland (74 yards) and Vinson (59 yards) caught four passes each.

Raiden Briley led the Hennessey defense with 11 tackles while Brayson Brinson added nine.

Vinson had five stops and also picked off Smith twice in the first half.

Gavin Layton spearheaded Cashion’s defensive effort with 15 tackles while Davis had 12.

The Wildcats weren’t able to get much going through the air as Smith was 10 of 22 for 69 yards and the two turnovers.

On the ground, however, they churned out 276 yards.

Brown’s big runs led to him picking up 173 yards on 11 carries. Smith added another 88 yards on 16 tries.

This was Cashion’s second straight week to go into overtime. The Wildcats lost to Millwood in Week 7. That final was also 34-28.

The district title is still alive for both Hennessey and Cashion, but Cashion controls its own destiny. If the Wildcats win out, the title belongs to them.

Hennessey, too, needs to win out to have a shot, but would also need a Cashion loss.