For the second year in a row, the Warrenton football team will not only move on to the district championship, but they will face off against Hannibal (8-3) on Nov. 15 for another rematch.

There are a lot of similarities between Warrenton’s previous season and this season. Both teams went undefeated in the regular season, both teams claimed GAC North Conference titles and both teams advanced to the district championship.

However, Head Coach Jason Koper noted this year, there is a different mindset about their team.

“Last year, when we got to this position, it was almost a bit of a surprise to us and definitely to our community, whereas this year was kind of an expectation to get back to where we are,” Koper said.

For the past three consecutive years, Hannibal has ended the Warriors’ season. Last year, the Pirates beat Warrenton 55-32 in the championship game.

The Warriors will face off against the Pirates for the fourth year in a row during the postseason. This year, Warrenton will host Hannibal at home on Nov. 15 starting at 7 p.m.

“Going into [this game], we’ve been there and we’ve been on the wrong end of a district championship loss, so our guys are excited,” Koper said. “That’s one of the things they focused on in the last couple of years is getting that rematch with them.”

The rematch comes after Warrenton defeated Osage (8-3) in the Class 4, District 5 game 42-7 on Nov. 8. The Warriors earned a week off after earning
the top seed in districts, which Koper noted ended up benefiting the team.

“Our defense just shut them down for the most part tonight. They were fired up. We played fresh. We played fast and across the board, we had a great defensive game,” Koper said.

Koper went on to say that the defense was able to come up with big plays and prevent big plays from happening, especially when Osage was in the red zone.

“The only time we gave up that big play, we were able to keep mounting the endzone. That’s what our defense has really done a great job of this year, is once teams get to the red zone, I feel like we play better and we get more focused,” Koper said.

Multiple players across the board made momentum switching plays. Keegan Mellegaard recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass. Austin White intercepted a pass. Javon Jones recorded three sacks and Austin Haas, Cole Meyer, Jake Mincher and Jake White each had one sack.

Junior Taylor Anderson credited their strong team dynamic for their success on the defense. Anderson recorded two sacks.

“We were just keeping it down. You got someone like [Kadin] Stroer, it’s so fun to play with him,” Anderson said. “When you have all these good defensive guys, it’s a blessing.”

Anderson noted that making it to the championship for the second year in a row feels even better than the first time.

“I hope we can do better than last year. It was not the outcome we wanted, but I hope this year we can get the ‘W’ and keep going,” Anderson said.

Before entering the rematch with Hannibal, Koper is hoping to work on some scheme things, noting there are still some holes they need to keep working on.

“Now, we just got to come out and we got to be able to play our best game, especially in this type of atmosphere,” Koper said.