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Wild one at WACO
Warrior comeback falls short in 54-52 loss
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WAYLAND — The scoreboard at WACO High School got a workout on Friday night, as the Warriors hosted English Valleys in a stereotypically high-scoring eight-man affair.
In a game with major playoff implications, WACO saw its attempt to crawl out of a massive hole come up just two points short, as English Valleys escaped Wayland with a 54-52 victory.
“Our kids fought hard, and I’m proud of the way they fought,” said WACO head coach Chad Edeker. “But we’re still not happy with a loss, and that really puts our playoff chances in a hard place.”
WACO couldn’t stop English Valleys runners Braydon Anderson and Drew Fisher in the first half. Those two were the only Bear players who carried the ball all night, and the duo combined for four touchdowns in the first two quarters.
Meanwhile, WACO’s offense could move the ball, but had trouble finishing drives. That put the Warriros in a bind, as English Valleys took what looked like a commanding 30-7 lead into halftime.
When the second half began, however, it was an entirely different ballgame.
WACO scored four times in the third quarter, increasing the pressure on English Valleys every time down the field. Trey Edeker opened the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run to cut it to 30-15. Then, after an English Valleys score, and a Hayden Shelman rushing touchdown, Edeker busted out on a 60-yard run up the middle to score again and bring it to 38-31.
Fisher busted out a 65-yard touchdown run of his own on English Valleys’ next play, but WACO hit right back, scoring on a 38-yard touchdown scamper by Niles Reichenbach.
After going down 54-39 early in the fourth, WACO would score and then get the ball back. Reichenbach found the end zone again with 9:14 remaining in the game, but it was still two possessions after a missed two-point conversion.
The Warriors got the ball back on an English Valley fumble inside the Warrior 10 with five minutes left, meaning WACO had to rush down the field and score quickly. Shelman scored his third touchdown run of the game with 2:15 left, and it was 54-52 after the point after.
WACO had two timeouts, meaning the Warriors could have gotten the ball back with a stop on defense. English Valleys picked up a 1st and 10 on a second-down run to help milk the clock, and on 4th and long, the Bears narrowly escaped having to snap the ball one more time, as the play and game clock were almost identical.
“As good as we played in the second half, we played that bad in the first,” said Edeker. “We just came up one two-point conversion short, or one stop short.”
Shelman ran for 164 yards and three touchdowns in the loss. Edeker went for 127 yards and two scores, and Reichenbach ran for 103 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
English Valleys ran the ball 46 times for 523 yards and seven touchdowns. Fisher and Anderson had every single running yard for the Bears.
Reichenbach led the Bears with six tackles. Sam Meyer had the fumble recovery, which was WACO’s lone takeaway.
WACO is now 3-3 overall and 2-2 in Class 8-Player District 5. The Warriors host Springville in non-district play on Friday night.
