It took a field goal in the waning moments to escape a first round eight player bout last week for the WACO football team. Warrior fans could breathe a little easier this week when they were pushing all the right buttons Friday at Martensdale-St. Mary’s en route to a 50-8 round of 16 victory.
As heard on KCII, the Warriors got the start they were looking for by forcing an early punt and marching right down the field capped off by a 10 yard Simeon Reichenbach touchdown. The 6’0’ 185 pound bell cow had his second house call later in the quarter from 19 yards out that was set up by a Drew Diers interception in the redzone. The Blue Devils (7-3) didn’t have much to cheer about at their home stadium, but did receive a spark on a 60 yard touchdown scamper by Kade Mullins to make it 14-8. Complimentary football was on display when Reichenbach pinned MTSM deep and two plays later the defense forced a safety. The floodgates then opened with a pair of interceptions by Mason Miller that helped the Warriors score twice more before half with rushing touchdowns by Isaac Oswald and Jon Rice to lead 29-8 at intermission. Rice found pay dirt two more times out of break to initiate the continuous clock and put clamps on the playoff victory. WACO was plus four in the turnover margin with Clayton Miller joining Diers and Mason Miller in the ballhawking party. They finished with 370 total yards compared to the Blue Devils’ 207 including winning the rushing department 305-70 despite the home squad having a pair of 6’3’’ 350 pound nose tackles. Reichenbach toted the rock 21 times for 112 yards, Rice had three end zone trips for 61 yards, and Oswald rushed for 58 tallies and two touchdowns. Oswald was six of 10 through the air for 65 yards and Diers hauled in a pair for 31.
Head Coach Chad Edeker tells KCII Sports Diers’ interception was a big game changer in the first quarter. “That was huge. We worked all week on him reading the quarterback and getting underneath the slant route that they like to run. They didn’t run many slant routes against us and I think it was because of that early pick. Our corners did a great job of not allowing anything easy and they really settled for throwing the deep ball where we had a couple more interceptions.”
WACO improves to 10-0 and advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010. They are set to face Audobon on Thursday in Wayland at 7 p.m. in a game that can be heard on KCII. The Wheelers rolled Montezuma 63-14 last night to move to 9-1.