Washington wins District

After a rather sluggish start last Friday night, Washington posted a 35-7 victory over CHA to win the District crown in 2A-3.

The Warriors were to host Tishomingo this week but the Indians opted to not participate in the playoffs.

So with the week off, Washington will host the winner of Lindsay and Purcell in the second round of the 2020 state playoffs the weekend of November 20-21.

Neither Washington nor CHA scored in the opening quarter at Reed Field last Friday night.

“They held the ball for a while and we did not have a very good first series,” head coach Brad Beller said.

Washington had started a drive as the quarter came to a close that resulted in an Emitt Wilk eight yard run to pay dirt.

Washington’s second score of the night came on an unusual punt off the toe of CHA’s punter.

“They lined up to punt and the rugby style punter looked like he might fake it,” Beller said. “We cut him off so he hit the ball like a line drive.”

Luke Hendrix snagged the pigskin and returned it 69 yards for a touchdown.

With the Warriors nursing the two score lead, CHA was making waves of cutting the lead in half with a serious drive.

But Lane Steele put the kibosh on the drive stepping in front of a CHA aerial for a key interception that changed the momentum of the contest.

“I’m proud of Lane Steele making the key interception,” Beller said. “He had a great game. Overall, our entire defense played well.”

The Warriors defenders held CHA to 48 yards rushing and their one big receiver had half of their passing yards, Beller said.

“I’m proud of our defense as a whole,” Beller continued. “They have that one really good receiver and even though we double teamed him he still made some plays.”

The Steele interception seemed to jump start the rest of the Warriors.

The offense came alive in the third period with Wilk tossing a 15-yard scoring pass to Kobe Scott.

Wilk then scooted in for his second rushing touchdown from 44 yards out before Cole Scott closed out the scoring on a 29-yard run.

Beller said safeties Jaxon Sanchez and Reece Stephens played very well and were excellent in getting the defense in the correct coverage.

“And they helped out on the run game quite a bit,” the coach said.

“Emitt Wilk did a great job of running our offense,” Beller continued. “He was a dual threat rushing 10 times for 117 yards and two touchdowns and was 7-11 passing for 100 yards including the one touchdown.

Beller said after Scott had the touchdown grab he also had a long touchdown reception for a score called back.

That got the attention of the Crusaders.

“He forced a lot of coverage on him and that opened up our run game. 

Chase Allison ran for 104 yards in the game.

“Overall, we had a very balanced offensive attack. Once Kobe caught the touchdown pass and had one called back it created such a mismatch on him that is opened up our opportunities to run the ball,” Beller said.

Washington finished the season 8-1 and 5-0 in league play.

Warrior notes:

Washington Head Coach Brad Beller nominated Emitt Wilk as the Offensive Player of the Week. Wilk rushed for two touchdowns and threw for another score and had 217 total yards rushing and passing.

Beller nominated Seth Tague as the Offensive Lineman of the Week. Tague graded out at 90 percent against CHA.

Getting the nod as the Defensive Player of the Week was Lane Steele who had six tackles and an interception.

The Defensive Lineman of the Week nominee is Rope Scott who had five tackles against the Crusaders.