WACO football team drops opener

By Andy Krutsinger, Mt. Pleasant News

Football season officially got underway in Wayland on Thursday night when the Warriors took on Hartwick-Ladora-Victor (HLV) in their season opener. A short-handed WACO roster couldn?t quite hang with a speedy HLV squad, falling 67-20.

WACO was without a handful of players either with early season injuries or suspensions. HLV capitalized early against the younger Warriors, scoring the first 25 points of the ballgame.

HLV got things started with a safety on WACO?s first drive, and then scored on their first offensive play. The two-point conversion was good and it was 18-0 in the blink of an eye.

HLV?s Chase Sternhagen scored a couple of rushing touchdowns in the first quarter and the home team found it self in a 25-0 hole. WACO was able to get on the scoreboard themselves with a 68-yard touchdown pass from Nik Coble to Drew Kissell, making it 25-6 after one quarter.

HLV scored on another Sternhagen touchdown run to start the second quarter. WACO struck back on their next possession when Jalen Collins took a handoff and shook off a face mask to rumble in for an 11-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion failed and it was 31-12.

HLV scored twice more in the first half on touchdown catches by Mitch Thys, and led by 35 at halftime, 47-12.

Due to the 35-point rule, a running clock was put in place in the second half. HLV scored twice more to take a 59-12 lead after three quarters and started the fourth quarter with another touchdown run to stretch the lead to 67-12.

WACO did score the final touchdown of the day. Will Edeker threw the first touchdown pass of his career, a 29-yard strike to Elijah McGohan. Edeker slung a two-point pass to Calvin Battle and the scoring ended at 67-20.

?All you can do is get better,? coach Chad Edeker said after the game. ?That?s a good team. It?s tough to start with (HLV), but we?ll get better as we go.?

Edeker said he was proud of his team, which was quite a bit younger than their counterparts, for staying in the game after the initial rush. He also spoke to the potential of the team once the absent players, including 2016 star Colton Horak, return in two weeks.

?Colton will make us a different team,? Edeker said. ?We don?t have Colton, so we had to do the best we could. We knew coming in that we were a little short-handed.?

Coble had a nice day passing, going 10-23 for 129 yards and one touchdown. Edeker was for 1-3 with 29-yards and a score. Kissell led the receiving core with four catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. McGohan had one catch for 29-yards and a score. Matthew Leichty caught four balls for 22 yards and Collins caught two for 20 yards.

Collins finished with 57 yards and a score to lead the ground game. Battle had 16 yards. Edeker rushed for six yards and Coble rushed for two.

McGohan led the team defensively with five total tackles and one sack. Cody Crawford had 5.5 tackles, including two tackles for a loss. Collins had 4.5 tackles, and both Battle and Hunter Donaldson finished with four.

The Warriors fell to 0-1 with the loss. They?ll play Twin Cedars on the road next Friday, Aug. 25. Twin Cedars won a high-scoring matchup in 2016 by the score of 66-56. WACO will be back at home on Friday, Sept. 1, against Tri-County.