LINN — Aaden Nelson broke into the open field and headed toward the end zone Friday, and Linn’s sideline seemed to race with him.

As Nelson completed the Wildcats’ first touchdown of the season, Assistant Coach Joey Avitia celebrated behind the play while sprinting down the boundary with both arms raised. Players crowded the sideline, some pointing toward Nelson and others thrusting their hands into the air.

The moment captured what first-year Linn head coach William “Sonny” Sonnemaker wanted to see from his team: players and coaches living in the present and finding joy in playing football together.

It did not erase Cuba’s 46-26 victory in Friday’s season opener at Linn, but it showed that the Wildcats’ past did not have to dictate their response to what happened next.

Nelson scored Linn’s first three touchdowns, including two in the second quarter and another in the third, before Tommy Scheulen reached the end zone in the fourth. The Wildcats added a two-point conversion after Scheulen’s score.

Cuba led 6-0 after the opening quarter and took a 20-12 advantage into halftime. The visitors outscored Linn 12-6 in the third quarter and 14-8 in the fourth to produce the final margin.

The game was a rematch of Cuba’s 32-30 victory last season, when Linn carried a lead late before Cuba rallied. Sonnemaker said his players entered Friday’s game with plenty of anticipation, but that excitement was accompanied by nervousness.

“We purposely, over time, starved them of football,” Sonny said. “We kind of took football away from them, and we were getting them really, really excited to play this game. They were kind of bursting at the seams, but there was also a lot of nervousness because of the past.”

Some players wondered whether the work they had invested throughout the offseason would become visible when the lights came on. Sonny noted the players also understood how much support the community had placed in them and did not want to disappoint those who had embraced the program.

That backing was evident well before kickoff. The home side filled with red, youth players gathered around the field, and a State Tech tailgate exhausted its supply of 75 hamburgers and 75 hot dogs before the game began.

“These kids finally understood that the community has their backs, and they didn’t want to let people down,” Sonny said. “Alongside the excitement, we also ran into the nervousness.”

That showed during Cuba’s first possession. Linn covered the opening kickoff well, but two explosive plays followed after defenders lined up a step away from where they needed to be.

When Linn received the ball, Sonny followed through on a promise he had made before the season. The Wildcats ran the same play repeatedly and challenged Cuba to stop it, extending the possession through most of the opening quarter.

The approach was deliberate. Sonny did not want a three-and-out to put a nervous team’s defense back on the field immediately, and the extended possession allowed the Wildcats to settle into their first game together.

“We chewed up the clock, and we drove it right down the field,” he said. “We accomplished what we needed to accomplish a little bit. We took time off the clock and let them settle in. We had to knock out those cobwebs, and then it kind of turned into a slugfest.”

Linn found its offensive breakthrough in the second quarter. Nelson supplied both touchdowns as the Wildcats answered Cuba’s 14 points with 12 of their own and remained within one possession at halftime.

The sideline’s reaction to Nelson’s first score mattered to Sonny because it showed the Wildcats were no longer dwelling on the previous possession or worrying about what might go wrong later. They were reacting to what one of their teammates had accomplished in that instant. “We really want these kids to love playing football, love being a team, and just really love being with each other,” Sonny said. “A football team’s lifespan—you’re only guaranteed those 10 games. Next year, you’re going to look around the locker room, and everyone is going to be different. We want these kids to have the best experience possible and learn a bunch about life as well.”

Nelson completed his three-touchdown night in the third quarter, but Cuba added two scores of its own. Sonny said the extended quarter took a physical toll as Linn attempted to remain within striking distance.

“That third quarter is really what beat us up a little bit,” he said. “That’s where we ran out of gas a little bit because we were trying to fight to get through the quarter. But, shoot, we were in the game the whole time. That 20 points doesn’t reflect at all how we played. Going back through the film, we’re literally a step away or a block away.”

Scheulen, who helped drive Linn’s offense early, scored the Wildcats’ final touchdown in the fourth quarter. The successful two-point conversion gave Linn eight points in the period and completed its scoring.

Sonny said the result would not send the offense back to the drawing board. Linn showed only a portion of what it has installed, and the staff also used the opener to begin establishing tendencies opponents will see on film.

“We got exactly what we needed to get going,” he said. “We’re playing a chess match as well. We’re trying to build some tendencies so other teams see what we’re doing, and we can pull the wool over their eyes. We’re right where we want to be. We’ve got 10 plays where we can run them 110 different ways.”

The opener also taught Linn’s coaches something about themselves.

Sonny has called the staff a collection of “Misfits,” coaches whose personalities, experiences, and willingness to operate outside convention fit together. On Friday, however, they tried so hard to perform their jobs as conventional football coaches that some of the personality binding them to the players disappeared.

The communication worked. Coaches in the booth identified what Cuba was doing, relayed the proper information and helped put players in the correct positions. Still, Sonny recognized during a third-quarter timeout that the mood had become too tight.

The staff called a play whose name and number normally draw a laugh from coaches and players. This time, nobody chuckled.

“We tried to be professional football coaches,” Sonny said. “We had the right guys in the box. We had the right plays. We had the right data. We were able to call plays before we saw it. That part was easy. But the Misfit vibe wasn’t there. The Jolly Roger wasn’t flying. The colors weren’t sailing. It wasn’t our brand of football.”

The answer is not to become less prepared or less accountable. It is to allow the coaches’ natural energy to accompany the preparation and help keep the players loose enough to perform.

Linn also endured a scare late in the first half when Landon Brown sustained an ankle injury and play was delayed. Brown was evaluated and diagnosed with a high ankle sprain. Sonny said Brown got back to his feet determined not to let the injury end his night, and the staff was hopeful he could return soon.

The Wildcats will take what they learned into their first road game on Friday, Sept. 4, at Salem. The Tigers will also enter the matchup 0-1 after a 28-3 loss to St. James.

Linn’s opener ended with a 20-point difference on the scoreboard. The sight of the sideline racing Nelson toward the end zone told another part of the story: these Wildcats had found something worth celebrating together, and they intend to keep building on it.