WACO brings Comet slide to four games

WAYLAND ? The WACO football team claimed the District 5 title with a 48-0 victory over Cardinal Friday night.

The Warriors held Cardinal to just 42 yards of total offense on 43 plays, after not allowing positive total yards in the first half of the game.

?I don?t know if they had positive yards in the first half for total offense,? said WACO Head Coach Chad Edeker. ?We played really well, but they were a little undermanned tonight as well. Some of their best athletes weren?t on the field tonight with some injuries and illness.?

The Warriors took the ball 80 yards on the game?s opening drive on five passes and five runs, before Spencer Shepherd found the end zone at the end of a 34-yard carry with 9:26 left in the first quarter.

Edeker said all 10 plays of the drive were scripted as the Warriors wanted to show that they were more balanced on offense after running on nearly every play of the last two games.

?We?ve worked hard on throwing it the last two weeks in practice,? Edeker said. ?We have to become more balanced on offense, and we know that, so we just keep working on it.?

After forcing Cardinal to punt after a failed third and 14 conversion, WACO marched the ball down the field once more. Cardinal appeared to stall the drive near their own 43, but Tad Morrow picked up a fourth and three conversion to keep the drive alive before scoring on a one-yard run.

WACO defensive back Ryan Vradenburg intercepted a pass from Cardinal quarterback Brandon Warren with 35.7 seconds left, which set up a Justin Graber 14-yard touchdown run on the Warrior?s next play.

Quarterback Brady Stauffer completed WACO?s first drive of the second quarter with a 17-yard touchdown pass toVradenburg at the two-yard line.

Cardinal?s defense picked up a stop the next two WACO drives before the Comets picked up their first first-down of the game on a WACO pass interference penalty with 1:43 remaining in the half. Cardinal picked up another first down through the air, and one more on the ground, but was forced to attempt a 65-yard field goal attempt as time expired in the half. Payton Rupe?s kick fell short just inside the end zone to end the half.

Morrow said his team was ready to play and everything just clicked for the Warriors in the first half.

?We really had everything clicking on all cylinders it seemed like,? Morrow said. ?It was fun to get everything going like that.?

The Warriors forced Cardinal to punt once again in the third quarter, and WACO?s punt block unit got a hand on the ball. Shepherd returned it five-yards for a touchdown and enacted the 35-point continuous clock rule.

Edeker said the win was a total team effort with a lot of guys that don?t normally make big plays stepping up.

?We didn?t have many really big plays, but we drove the ball down the field and put it in the end zone,? Edeker said. ?I don?t think anybody had more than six or seven carries. We spread the ball around and it was a great team win.

The win puts WACO at 5-0 in Class A, District 5 and guarantees them a district title, the Warriors? fifth since 1996.

?Last year we thought we had the district title and then New London really stuck it to us. This year we came back and got it,? Edeker said.

Morrow said the key to keeping WACOs momentum going is just to continue what the team?s been doing, especially in practice and on defense in recent weeks.

?I think we?ve just got to keep going strong in practice and keep this attitude on defense where we?re just locking people down,? Morrow said.

The loss drops Cardinal to 2-3 in the district and 4-4 overall, but will be in the postseason with a win on Friday. Even with a loss, the Comets will have a shot at the postseason, but will be in need of some help.