A slow start and early mistakes doomed the Warrenton Warriors in their season opening home loss to Ft. Zumwalt South.
The Warriors (0-1) lost their home opener to the Bulldogs 41-12. The Warriors scored one touchdown in each half. McKyi Owens connected with Colton Brosenne for a 19-yard touchdown pass to pull the Warriors within seven points less than two minutes into the second quarter. The Warriors scored their second touchdown with 42 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Overall, Warrenton football coach Jason Koper saw bright spots throughout the game despite the Warriors making a lot of inexperienced mistakes, which Koper expected to see throughout the game.
“We made a lot of mistakes like the sophomore and junior team that hasn’t played a lot of varsity snaps,” Koper said. “On the bright side of it, as I’m watching this game live, I feel like outside of six or eight minutes of the game, we were really competitive. It didn’t feel like it got out of hand other than those first two early touchdowns and then to start off the second half when it just seemed like they scored every couple of plays there for a minute.”
The Bulldogs scored two touchdowns in the first eight minutes of the first half to claim an early 13-0 lead. Warrenton and Ft. Zumwalt South both scored one touchdown in the second quarter, leaving the score 20-6 at halftime.
“At the end of the first half, we came out and I thought we were playing a really good quality of football,” Koper said. “We were executing well on offense all the way across the board. Our offensive line absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage there for about four or five minutes of the second quarter. Those are things I thought we were capable of doing.”
The Bulldogs added two early third quarter touchdowns to put the game out of reach. Carter Cox scored on a two-yard run on the Bulldogs’ first possession. Jackson Tankersley blocked a Brosenne punt on the first Warrior possession of the half to give the Bulldogs a 34-6 lead.
The Warriors’ offensive attack was led by sophomore running back Austin Haas. Haas rushed the ball for 119 yards on 23 carries. He rushed for over five yards per carry. Koper liked what he saw from the sophomore captain.
“I expected him to look good as we were going through camp,” Koper said. “He’s a tough kid. He’s earned captain for a reason this year.”
Koper also saw good things from the offensive line. They outperformed his expectations. As a team, the Warriors just need to clean up assignment and alignment mistakes Koper saw through the course of the game.
Owens led the Warriors in passing. He completed 5-8 attempts for 40 yards. Brosenne led the Warriors with 46 yards receiving on two catches.
Brandon Johnson led the Warriors with five tackles.
Koper’s focus for the Warriors is to continue to improve. If the Warriors improve as much this week and the rest of the season as they did from the Jamboree to the season opener, Warrenton will be very competitive by the end of the season. Koper said they need to focus on the basics of blocking, tackling and catching and throwing the football. Those are things the Warriors did not execute last week.
“The kids are coachable,” Koper said. “We have a great group of kids. I love them all like they’re my own children. They really are phenomenal kids. And they’re going to take the coaching. Their mindset wasn’t we have film tomorrow. They’re begging to come in tomorrow and watch film. That’s what we want and that’s what’s going to make us a very good football team in the future.”
Warrenton will square off against Washington High School Friday. The game is slated to be played at 7 p.m. at Washington.