Following dominant performances in back-to-back weeks, WACO football aims for their third-consecutive win tonight in a battle with the New London Tigers.
The #10 Warriors enter the contest 4-1, outscoring their last two opponents by 89 points. In Week 5, WACO handled Easton Valley 56-14 on homecoming night. Quarterback Clayton Miller, Louden Huisenga, and Reece Oswald each accounted for two touchdowns. John McLaughlin ran for a score as well, while Hunter Hughes found the endzone on a punt return. Huisenga, Joel Meyer, Colton Leichty, and Chase Waterhouse led the defense as all four were responsible for WACO’s 11 tackles for loss on the evening. Huisenga added a pick and Leichty scooped up a fumble.
The Warriors average 39 points per game, allowing just 20. Miller is completing nearly 60 percent of his passes with eight touchdowns through the air to just one interception. Huisenga has run for more than half of the team’s 897 rushing yards, racking up 6.6 yards per carry. He’s also pulled in four receiving touchdowns to go with his seven on the ground. WACO has recorded 173.5 tackles on the season, with 32 for a loss. Huisenga, Leichty, and Meyer are the three Warrior defenders with 20 or more tackles. Leichty also has a team-high three sacks. Five WACO defenders are responsible for the teams 12 turnovers.
Head Coach Chad Edeker spoke with KCII earlier this week about what he would like to see from his team tonight and through the rest of the regular season. “Our keys are the same thing every week. We wanna play really good defense and make them one-dimensional. We wanna take their run away and make them throw the ball. Offensively, we wanna control the line of scrimmage. We wanna pound the ball and then beat you with our play-action. I just wanna keep seeing consistency and be a better team at the end of the year.
New London rides into Week 6 off their first win of the season, 36-28 over HLV. Gavin Menke-Bailey threw for two scores, and ran for a team-high 125 yards and another touchdown. Logan Franklin caught three passes for 69 yards and a score, while Michael Raines led the Tigers with 11 tackles including a sack. New London averages 19 points per game while allowing more than 50. From the quarterback position, Menke-Bailey has accounted for 10 of the team’s 12 touchdowns. He also leads the Tiger defense with 33.5 tackles. New London has just two takeaways this year, one of which came last week.
WACO has won 7 of the last 13 matchups with New London, including the last two. As the Warriors look to continue this trend, you can hear the action tonight on the KCII Area Game of the Week. Pregame coverage starts on the KCII3 stream at 6:30, with kickoff between the Warriors and Tigers at 7.