Warriors dispatch Bobcats

Star Spencer came into last Friday night’s district clash with Washington undefeated and fired up.

They used that enthusiasm to score first and lead the Warriors 6-0.

But that was that.

The Warriors erupted for 21 first quarter points on their way to a 49-12 victory.

The Bobcats used a 51 yard pass play to set up their touchdown but Washington answered with long distance touchdown jaunts by Lance Spaulding and Rhett Vaughn.

Spaulding loped in from 45 yards out and Vaughn galloped 53 yards for his touchdown. 

Jaxon Sanchez closed out the first period onslaught with a three yard burst.

The Warriors kept their foot on the gas in the second period.

Gavin Grimsey slashed in from a yard out and Devin Orr tossed a 40 yard touchdown strike to Spaulding.

That was just the first of a trio of Orr scores on the night.

He took a 15-yard dash to the house in the third quarter and threw a 34-yard touchdown strike to Kobe Scott later in the quarter.

“Our offense was the most efficient that it has been all year and I give Devin a lot of the credit for that,” head coach Brad Beller said.

“He just ran the offense well from beginning to end,” the coach continued.

Orr was 7-9 passing for 153 yards and two touchdowns and rushed the ball four times for another 21 yards and the score.

Beller continues to watch the “pitch count” on carries for Spaulding limiting him to eight totes for 114 yards.

“We spread the ball out,” Beller said. “We had 26 rushes in the game and 10 different people carried the ball. We had 14 different people touch the ball either through the air or on the ground.

“We had a lot of distribution and Devin was a big key to that,” the coach said.

It was a very similar story on defense with 24 different players rotating in and playing with the first unit.

“We did the same thing on defense,” Beller said. “We didn’t have one single player with double digit tackles. Our highest tackler was Chase Allison with six tackles.

“But we had four turnovers that really helped,” Beller noted.

Reese Stephens, Kobe Scott and Graham Schovanec all has pass interceptions and Wyatt McCauley recovered a fumble.

“Those four plays were huge especially considering the way they started the game,” Beller said. “We had a really good team effort. Our guys were fresh at the end of the game.

“After playing three physical teams in Hobart, Purcell and Marlow we rotated a bunch of players and you could tell by how fresh we were going in at halftime and then at the end of the game.”

The 4-0, 1-0 Warriors travel to Little Axe for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday night.

The Indians are 1-3 on the season and operate out of a spread formation on offense and base out of a 4-3 on defense.

Beller wants his club to be quick out of the gate against the Indians.

“We need another quick start. It has paid off for us the last couple of weeks and we need to continue that trend,” Beller confirmed. “We need to score quickly and often.”

Another key for a Warrior victory is getting off the field on third down when they are on defense.

“Little Axe has been really good on third down extending drives,” the coach said. “We need to make sure we get off the field and play really well on third down.”

Warrior notes:

Washington Head Coach Brad Beller nominated Devin Orr as the Offensive Player of the Week. 

Orr was 7-9 passing for 153 yards and rushed four times for 21 yards. He tossed a pair of touchdown passes and scored a rushing touchdown.

The Offensive Lineman of the Week nomination went to Seth Tague, who graded out at 84 percent against the Bobcats.

Beller nominated Justin Simmons as the Defensive Lineman of the Week. He registered five tackles including two for losses.

Getting the nod as the Defensive Player of the Week was  Chase Allison. Allison made six tackles and had a sack against Star Spencer.