While the Wright City football team showed lightning-quick flashes of brilliance on Friday, visiting Westminster hit the home team with a prolonged downpour of success.
It was Westminster that came away with the 34-7 win at America’s Heartland Stadium.
“This was the same score as last week,” said quarterback Kayden McCurdy, calling back to the Week 1 loss at Warrenton. “I feel like we’re getting better, though. These are two Class 4 schools and, even though conference play is going to be tough, these were some tough opponents.”
Westminster took the opening kick and moved it all the way to the Wright City 14 before having to settle for a 31-yard field goal by Campbell Nabours with eight minutes, four seconds left in the opening quarter.
All things considered, the way the visitors moved the ball to open the game made a field goal feel like a win.
“People are going to look at the score and say that we didn’t stop anybody,” Wright City Coach John Klekamp said. “Really, I felt like our defense played solid. Our defensive (staff) has done a great job every week having the boys prepared. We knew (Beckemeier) was solid and we’d have issues stopping him. Overall, though, I thought we played well on defense.
Westminster capped the scoring in the first quarter when quarterback Charlie Beckemeier scored his fifth touchdown of the season on a six-yard run with 1:41 left in the quarter.
After a quick three-and-out by Wright City, Beckemeier hit Drew Porter with an 11-yard scoring strike with 9:24 left in the half.
Wright City (0-2) turned to quick action on offense next as junior quarterback Kayden McCurdy hooked up with TJ Hamel for the 82-yard score with 8:29 left in the half to cut the Westminster advantage to 17-7.
“We can only get better over time,” Hamel said. “Competing with conference teams is going to be the goal going forward.”
A Beckemeier 1-yard run with 2:50 left in the half and a Nabours 22-yard field goal on the next-to-last play of the half accounted for the 27-7 halftime score.
In the second half, the scoring didn’t begin until the fourth quarter.
That’s where Beckemeier scored on a 12-yard run with 7:48 left and, after the PAT, Westminster was up 34-7.
Up next, Wright City will travel to Eastern Missouri Conference foe Bowling Green for a 7 p.m. kickoff on September 11.
Last season, Wright City defeated Bowling Green 34-8 at home to snap a four-game losing streak to the Bobcats.
“Their coach is going to have them ready to play,” Klekamp said. “Our game was a big game for them last year. It was a surprise for them. They looked good in their first game, for sure. We’re going to have to be ready to roll.”
