Konawa tops Wayne

Wayne lost their season opener at Konawa Friday night, 8-6.

Wayne got on the board first with a 76-yard touchdown run by Kaleb Madden in the first quarter.

The speedy senior took a jet sweep around the left corner of his offense and he was off to the races down the sideline.

Adolfo Vasquez’s extra point attempt was no good and Wayne was off to a 6-0 lead.

Madden finished the night with two carries for 78 yards and a score, as well as four catches for 23 yards.

With 1:11 to play in the half Konawa struck back.

After it appeared the Tiger’s quarterback was bottled up in the backfield by three Wayne defenders, the determined runner escaped and raced 60 yards into the end zone. The ensuing two-point conversion was good and Konawa led 8-6.

That would be all the scoring in the game as Wayne would fail to capitalize with the ball deep in Konawa territory when they turned the ball over to the defense.

It wasn’t the start to the season the Bulldogs wanted but according to head coach Brandon Sharp many of their miscues Friday are correctable going forward.

“A lot of the problem on offense was missed blocks and blown assignments,” Sharp said. “We didn’t have good communication up front. It was really more scheme and assignments missed. We’ll get that ironed out and we’ll be okay.”

Wayne had 196 total yards of offense, amassing 161 of them on the ground on 29 carries.

Quarterback Jaxon Dill was 7-15 for 35 yards.

“I thought he did good managing the game for us,” Sharp said.

At running back, Vasquez rushed for 28 yards on eight carries.

Defensively, the Bulldogs played well enough to win the ball game.

“Our back end guarded the pass well,” Sharp said. “Our only problem was we struggled to tackle the quarterback. As the game went on they adjusted to get the ball into his hands more.”

The Konawa offense had no passing yards, going 0-3. And two of the attempted passes were picked off.

Vasquez led the team in tackles with 11. He also had a sack.

Kevin Alviso tallied six tackles.

Rhett Kennedy had three tackles, caused a fumble and intercepted a pass.

Hill had six tackles, including two sacks, and recovered a fumble.

Madden had three tackles and a pick.

The Tigers finished the night with 162 yards of total offense.

“Mistakes cost us in the long run but hats off to Konawa, they did enough to win,” Sharp said. “This is part of having a young team. Us coaches will get them more prepared for the next one.”

Lexington

The Bulldogs (0-1) come to town Friday night for a 7 p.m. kickoff. 

Lexington will give a different look to Wayne coming in as a 2A school.

“We’ll have to match their intensity,” Sharp said. “Coach Bolles has them playing better and we’ll be tested more, especially in the back end. They have a good quarterback and receivers.”

Move-in quarterback Tate Collier will air the ball out for the Bulldogs. Defensively Lexington runs a 3-4.

“Our offensive line will have to do a lot better blocking and staying on people,” Sharp said. “It’s unacceptable for a Wayne team to not run the ball any better than we did last week. But it’s all correctable and if we do that we feel like we have a good chance Friday.”