The Warrenton football team’s 35-0 loss to Liberty on Sept. 12 came down to one simple thing: execution. 

From enduring challenges of an explosive Eagles’ offense to being unable to capitalize on its own drives, Warrenton is now focused on getting back on track ahead of conference play. 

“We just have to get back to work. We knew coming into this year Liberty was going to be one of the two toughest teams on our schedule, and they’re a good football team but this doesn’t change a whole lot as far as what some of our goals are,” Koper said. 

Though the loss was a tough pill to swallow for a program unseasoned to defeat – this was Warrenton’s first regular-season loss since Nov. 21, 2022 – it was able to pinpoint mistakes exposed to them. 

“We haven’t lost in a long time, but now it’s out of the way. We have to make sure we’re executing and doing the little things right that we’ve done in the last couple of years to be successful. We can’t make excuses,” Koper said. 

Despite the skewed score, there were bright spots. Taylor Anderson recorded two quarterback sacks, Jordan Lopez seized an interception and the defense managed to stop Liberty’s first drive – a goal the team had coming into the game. 

However, Koper noted those moments of success did not translate into a consistent performance.

“If we can’t move the ball consistently against a team that scores that much, you’re going to have a long night and that’s unfortunately what happened to us,” Koper said. 

He emphasized that breakdowns occurred across the board, and many of the mistakes came down to basic fundamentals. 

“It came down to little mistakes. We were able to get away with them in the last two weeks, but they were too good for us to be able to do that this week,” Koper said. 

As the buzzer blared for halftime, Koper used the 20-minute break to refocus his players.

“At halftime, I just told them we have to play together as a team, and we need to finish the job playing as 11 players instead of playing as individuals. At times, we did better and at times, we didn’t,” Koper said. 

The defense showed improvement in the second half, allowing just one Liberty score in the final 30 minutes. 

Offensively, Christian Blondin led the ground game with 37 rushing yards. Bradley Tucker added 26 rushing yards, while Deadrick Forrest collected 44 yards on three receptions. Defensively, Eli Schneider notched nine tackles and Keegan Mellegaard amassed for five.

Warrenton dropped to 2-1 and will open up GAC North conference play at 7 p.m. on Sept. 19 with a road game against Winfield (1-2).

“We have a long way to go,” Koper said. “We need to find some answers in a hurry and execute and string some drives together.”