Timely scores and a strong defensive performance helped Wright City top district foe Orchard Farm Friday to win their second straight game to open the season.
Wright City (2-0) beat Orchard Farm (0-2) 21-7 Friday. The Wildcats used a pair of second quarter touchdowns and a touchdown to open the third quarter to gain a lead they did not relinquish in the victory.
“We put in a few new things this week. For coaches and players, it just took a little bit of time to see how everything’s working,” Wright City head coach Tyler Rickard said. “How they’re going to align to it and how we can attack. We saw some things there in the second quarter that we really felt we could take advantage of with our split back set…We just found some advantages that we liked out of that formation and we were able to exploit it and just stay on them.”
After a scoreless first quarter, the Wildcats scored a pair of touchdowns late in the second quarter to gain a 15-0 lead they took into halftime. Duan McRoberts opened the scoring with just under six minutes left in the half. McRoberts’ 6-yard rushing touchdown kicked off the scoring for Wright City. Demetrice LeNoir scored on defense for the second consecutive game to extend the Wildcats’ lead. With Orchard Farm approaching midfield, LeNoir recovered a fumble and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown. The Wildcats converted a two-point conversion to push the lead to 15-0.
“Our defense has just played lights out,” Rickard said. “They’re just flying to the football. You can tell all the time we’re working turnover circuit in practice is paying off because we’re super aggressive ripping the ball out, making tackles, gang tackling. Coach Wallace is doing a great job on the defensive side.”
The Wildcat defense came up with a big stop right before halftime. Orchard Farm drove the ball into the red zone but Jeremiah Davis intercepted a pass with one second left in the half to preserve Wright City’s two possession lead.
Wright City started the third quarter with possession of the ball and drove all the way to the endzone to claim a 21-0 lead. Denzel Dowdy scored from one yard out to cap off the drive.
Orchard Farm scored a touchdown later in the third quarter. Jorden Matlock scored on a 10-yard run with over two minutes left in the third quarter to pull within 14 points. Wright City was able to possess the ball and get crucial defensive stops late in the game to preserve the win.
“When we’re up a couple scores right there, we just want to be smart,” Rickard said. “Don’t put our guys in a position to turn the ball over and just use our physicality up front to continue to run the ball. We’ve got very capable running backs that are talented. Good offensive line. So we just want to grind it out. Our defense is going to shut them down when they’re on the field.”
McRoberts led the Wildcat offensive attack. McRoberts rushed for 124 yards and threw for 122 yards.
“Duan just steps right in. He has such a high IQ,” Rickard said. “I don’t have to tell him things too much. He just picks it up. And he’s an athlete. He’s a football player. You put the ball in his hands and good things are going to happen… If we continue to use him, he’s going to continue to get better. He’ll be good no matter where we put him.”
Dowdy added 48 yards rushing. Davis led the Wildcats with 63 yards receiving.
Rickard stressed the importance of following up Wright City’s season opening win over Winfield with another strong performance against Orchard Farm.
“We had a good week of practice and that was the big thing,” Rickard said. “Just continuing to implore in our guys that complacency is the enemy right now. You can’t become complacent. You’ve got to stay hungry. Because once we become complacent, that’s when we’re going to find ourselves in a tight spot. And so, by continuing to push, continuing to be focused and it just rolled over into the game. We were focused. I just thought we executed really well tonight.”
Wright City will host Mark Twain this week in a conference matchup. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. Friday.