The season came to an end for the WACO Warriors Friday night with a 48-7 loss at Don Bosco in the second round of the eight-player football state playoffs.

WACO suffered a significant mistake early when they fumbled a handoff on the third play of the game and gave Don Bosco the ball in a goal-to-go situation right away. The Warrior defense got to third and goal, but Dons quarterback Kyler Knaack found fellow senior Ben Belew for a 14-yard touchdown pass to grab the initial lead.

WACO would respond on their third possession of the night, using a combination of senior Louden Huisenga and junior Trey Edeker to run the ball and move downfield. Huisenga finished off the drive with a six-yard TD run to tie the game at 7.

The Warriors looked to be getting Don Bosco off the field on their ensuing possession, but Knaack managed to heave a 37-yard pass to Belew on third down and would score on the next play from one yard out.

The Dons would strike once more at the end of the first half, using a 25-yard catch and run to the end zone from junior Ty Christensen to build a 21-7 lead going into halftime.

But Don Bosco would truly seize control at the start of the second half. The Dons marched the ball 65 yards over the first six-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter, with Knaack finding pay dirt once more to go up by three touchdowns.

After forcing a WACO three-and-out, Don Bosco started the fourth quarter with a 51-yard scoring strike from Knaack to Belew to go up 35-7, and rushing TDs from Knaack and Christensen rounded out the scoring down the stretch.

The Warriors finished the night with only 114 total yards of offense and committed three turnovers. Senior Louden Huisenga led the team with nine rushes for 39 yards and four pass receptions for another 37 yards.

After the game, head coach Chad Edeker told KCII Sports that, while it hurts to have the season end, his team should be proud of what they’ve accomplished this fall.

“We’ve come so far since Week Three when we lost to Iowa Valley,” Edeker said. “We were sort of scratching our head [wondering] what we were going to do. It stings right now, but I told the boys [that] as we get through the end of the season and we get to our banquet stuff, this was a really good year.”

WACO’s fourth straight winning season that reached at least the second round of the playoffs ends with an 8-2 record. The Warriors will be losing nine seniors after this year, including Huisenga, Clayton Miller, Gage Samo, Isaac Rich, Joel Meyer, Deacon Bird, Gabe Brown, Owen Wolf and Lane Bachman.