Cantele’s disastrous night keeps Wildcats on their heels

Quickly, sharply, Kansas State coach Bill Snyder came to kicker Jack Cantele’s defense.

Even that couldn’t hide what a horrible night the Wichita native had on Thursday in the Wildcats’ 20-14 loss to No. 5 Auburn, missing field goals from 41, 42 and, the killer, a 22-yarder.

“We had some bad snaps and bad holds on two of them,” Snyder said. “When (Cantele) gets good snaps and good holds he looks fine.”

Cantele’s misses had a two-fold impact — demoralizing for K-State and energizing for Auburn.

“You’re not ever thinking they’ll miss … hoping, sure, but one I know was really close so you just assume that’s going through,” Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall said. “Gave us an unexpected boost, definitely.”

Cantele’s meltdown seemingly came out of nowhere. The Kapaun Mount Carmel product hit 11 of 13 field goals last season and was 4 of 5 entering Thursday’s game, with two coming past 40 yards.

The first miss came from 41 yards out, with K-State trailing 3-0 and 4 minutes left in the first quarter. The snap from K-State’s Dalton Converse was a little off and hit holder Collin Sexton in the stomach, but Sexton was able to get it down and Cantele’s attempt had the distance, but sailed wide left.

The second miss came with K-State trailing 10-7 and time winding down in the second quarter. On second-and-9, K-State quarterback Jake Waters fumbled, and the lost yardage pushed Cantele’s oncoming attempt from 30 to 42 yards.

This one, also with the distance, sailed wide right.

Cantele wasn’t made available to reporters after the game.

“Nobody’s perfect out there, we’ve all got things we can improve on,” said K-State linebacker Jonathan Truman, a teammate of Cantele’s at Kapaun. “It’s never just one thing.”

The last miss was the one that hurt the most, and the one that may have cost Cantele his job moving forward.

Still trailing 10-7, Cantele shanked a 22-yard attempt wide right with 4:44 left in the third quarter.

After Charles Jones’ 1-yard touchdown run pulled K-State within 20-14 with 3:49 left in the fourth quarter, freshman Matthew McCrane came out to kick for the Wildcats, greeted by a raucous cheer from the crowd, and another round of cheers after he nailed the extra point.

“We just had to forget about it, move onto the next play,” said K-State running back DeMarcus Robinson, another Wichita native. “Missed field goals, missed tackles, missed blocks … you’ve just got to keep moving forward no matter what happens.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2014 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Cantele’s disastrous night keeps Wildcats on their heels."