On the morning of the Warrenton football team’s game against Washington on Sept. 5, Deadrick Forrest received a quiet, but impactful reminder of just how far he and Christian Blondin have come. 

“My mom showed me this picture of us from kindergarten and it's the same thing now. It’s been since kindergarten,” Forrest said after the Warriors’ 26-7 win over the Blue Jays. 

In the photo, the pair were just kids – wide-eyed and blissfully unaware of how far that years-long friendship would lead to a powerful dynamic on the gridiron. 

Fast forward to over a decade. The friendship remains but they’re just a little taller and have fewer missing teeth. 

“We both stopped playing for a bit, but it’s always been there and it’s coming back,” Forrest said. 

Their connection was fully evident Sept. 5 as Blondin, the Warriors’ quarterback and Forrest, his go-to wide receiver, displayed a powerful offensive attack. 

Forrest lit up Washington’s secondary with four receptions for 147 yards, including a 37-yard touchdown. Blondin put on a strong performance as well with 194 passing yards on eight completed passes – a significant improvement from a week one performance when he had seven completions for 67 yards. 

“I said to (Forrest) at halftime, we were going to get this down somewhere and we did,” Blondin said. 

Following the game, the duo recreated that kindergarten photo. 

“The photo was a reminder that we’ve already been through this,” Forrest said. “In the first game, I had a couple of receptions but we didn’t really catch the ball as much. This game, we got the ball in the air and it looked like it worked.” 

Warrenton, which typically plays a run-first offense, came into the game wanting to throw the ball more after realizing it had not opened the pass game up soon enough last season. 

“We wanted to try and get (Blondin) some confidence. We call this simple play all the time where (Forrest) gets the first touch and he ended up breaking it (on the 37-yard touchdown), so it was great to see him have a good game, and to see (Blondin) take a massive step forward this week,” Warrenton coach Jason Koper said. 

Scott VanPool and Kaleb Lauck also got in on the action. VanPool recorded 39 yards on three receptions, while Lauck caught one pass for eight yards. 

“(Blondin’s) got a great arm and we got some really talented wide receivers out there and we had several good positions,” Koper said. 

While the passing game took some of the spotlight, Warrenton’s ground game created plenty of noise too. 

With fans screaming “Freight Train,” a nickname coined for senior running back Javon Jones, the Blue Jays soon realized exactly why he earned that title. 

Jones, who primarily played on the defensive side of the ball last year, has been handling more carries this season. Last season, Jones ran for three touchdowns total. Two games into this season, he has run for three. Two of which were scored against the Blue Jays. 

“It feels good to be able to help the team out more on the offensive side of the ball. I’m usually helping out more on defense but I like being able to help out more on the offense too,” Jones said. 

Jones’ biggest moment came on the second play after halftime when both teams were tied at 7. With Forrest and Blondin sharing a knowing glance before the snap, Blondin threw a 27-yard dart to Forrest. Then, Jones took the handoff in the next play and bulldozed his way 46 yards to the end zone. 

“That touchdown he opened up the second half with was huge. We knew we needed to score quick and that two-play score really set the tone for the rest of the game,” Koper said. “I mean my goodness, the kid runs with a reckless abandonment about him. He’ll run you over and he looks for contact.” 

While Koper says that touchdown set the tone for the rest of the game, Jones noted something else caused the momentum to shift. 

“If I’m being honest, it was coach during halftime,” Jones said. “We knew our offense was pretty good but we needed to execute better on defense.”  

The defense did just that. With the Warriors’ up by just one score at the start of the fourth quarter, Warrenton made a critical red-zone stop at their own 13-yard line to protect the lead. 

“We talk about being a bend and don’t break team,” Koper said. “If we can hold teams like this to seven points all year, our offense is going to grind out the game,” Koper said. 

Blondin ran for a one-yard touchdown. Bradley Tucker ran for 87 yards on 12 carries, Jake Mincher led the defense with one sack and 14 tackles. Eli Schneider recorded 15 tackles and Jones had 13. 

Warrenton improved to 2-0. The Warriors will travel to Wentzville at 7 p.m. on Sept. 12 to take on Liberty High School (2-0) in a Week 3 game.