The Warrenton football team guaranteed itself at least a .500 season on Friday.
That's because the Warriors (5-3) won their second straight with their 49-6 victory at St. Charles in a GAC North match-up, which was won in the trenches, Keegan Lehmkuhl said.
“We’re winning games up front now,” Lehmkuhl said. “The line makes some great holes for Eli (Schneider) to run through and that opens up the passing game for us.”
Warrenton scored on its first possession of the game when junior Eli Schneider scored on a 28-yard run with 8 minutes,13 seconds left in the opening quarter to make it 6-0 after the missed PAT.
After a Schneider blocked punt set the Warriors up in St. Charles territory, Schneider finished the drive, himself, as he found the end zone after a 1-yard plunge to make it 14-0 when sophomore quarterback Mason Sanders’ 2-point conversion run was successful.
“I came up the middle, untouched,” Schneider said. “I just ran through the ball, trying to block it. (On the runs), my line opened up some big holes.”
Before the end of the quarter, Warrenton went to the air for seven more points.
With 1:26 left in the quarter, Sanders hooked up with Jordan Lopez on a 10-yard scoring strike to make it 21-0 after the extra point.
In the second quarter, Warrenton extended the lead when Schneider found the end zone on a 3-yard run with 4:52 left in the half and the team extended the lead to its halftime advantage when Sanders hit Keegan Lehmkuhl in stride for the 35-yard score to make it 35-0.
“I’m proud of the offense; we needed to take some steps forward,” Warrenton Coach Jason Koper said. “I feel like we’ve executed well, at times. It was nice to see us get some of those big 10- to 12-yard chunk plays. As strong as Eli is and as big as our line is, I wanted to see us chunk out bigger plays.”
In the second half, Warrenton picked up right where it left off with another ‘big’ play.
After a failed onside kick by St. Charles, Sanders found Ty Thompson on a 51-yard scoring strike to make it 42-0 after the extra point with 11:03 left in the third quarter.
Mikey Lewis ended the shutout on the next drive when his 67-yard run with 7:43 left in the third made it 42-6.
Sander and Lehmkuhl closed out the scoring as the pair combined on a 9-yard scoring pass to make it 49-6 after the extra point.
The win was Warrenton’s eighth straight over St. Charles (2-6), and it follows the Warriors' 40-20 home win over the Pirates last season.
Warrenton is now 20-5 against St. Charles since the 2002 season.
Up next, Warrenton will close out the regular season at home when the team hosts Borgia at 7 p.m. next Friday.
Overall, Warrenton holds a 2-5 record against the Knights, but hasn’t played the Franklin County team since a 28-20 road loss during the 2011 season.
“We’ve spent time looking at us, so I haven’t really looked all that much at them,” Koper said. “They always have a great program. We’ll have to be ready.”
