After the long awaited football matchup between two Warren County schools, Wright City and Warrenton, the Warriors walked away with a 17-7 win on Aug. 30 in the season opener for both teams.

The game started an hour and a half late at 8:30 p.m. due to lightning and weather conditions, but that did not stop fans on both sides from cheering and waiting.

Warrenton Coach Jason Koper was happy with the win, but will be looking to fix and work on the little mistakes he saw that can end up hurting the team in the long run.

“We have to clean up the mental mistakes. We can’t have 10, 12 penalties in a game and expect to be successful throughout the year,” Koper said. “They’re all correctable mistakes, but we just have to do a better job at it.”

Head Coach Tyler Rickard noted the team showed glimpses of great play, but they were unable to sustain it.

“We just got worn out. They are a big physical football team and they pounded on us and just kept grinding,” Rickard said. “We got tired and that’s something we have to get better at.”

Rickard went on to say that the team did well moving the ball, creating holes and getting the ball out. However, he said their tackling needs to improve as they get further along the season.

“We missed too many open field tackles tonight and they have some really shifty runningbacks that made it tough on us, so we’ll have to focus on tackling this week and being efficient on offense,” Rickard said.

Both teams came out strong in the first quarter, despite the pouring rain. Wright City’s Kayden Allison rushed a 65-yard jet sweep for a touchdown with
seven minutes left in the first quarter after receiving a handoff from Duan McRoberts.

Kicker Kaleb McCory added an extra point to make the score 7-0 Wright City.

It did not take long for the Warriors to respond. With less than three minutes left in the first, quarterback Brandon Johnson scored a one-yard rushing touchdown to tie up the score.

Wright City managed to thwart a scoring opportunity with 11 seconds remaining in the first half on an interception by Ben Rodriquez in the end zone.

Warrenton broke through in the third quarter after running back Austin Haas received a handoff from Johnson and ran straight into the end zone for a three-yard rushing touchdown. Kicker Tyler Faerber added his second extra point to put the Warriors ahead 14-7.

Warrenton tacked on three more points when kicker Jake Kinney made a 15-yard field goal with six minutes remaining in the game.

The Wildcats were unable to generate much offense in the second half, leaving Warrenton with their first win of the season.

Warrenton senior Austin Haas said the Warriors did well in keeping their heads in the game despite being tied for the majority of the game, but the team needs to work on cleaning up the penalties and little mistakes that can
add up.

“We made sure to stay composed and come back up and the defense was lights out in the second half,” Haas said.

Koper explained that the team is currently trying to work out a few things on the offense, specifically running in between tackles and vertical passes.

Both teams have the goal to go 1-0 each week.

“We need to put this game behind us and move on,” Rickard said. “We have to get ready to come back next week and put our full attention on Winfield and be ready to go.”

After meeting for the first time at the varsity level, both coaches hope the rivalry game remains on the schedule in the future.

Warrenton and Wright City now prepare for the second game of the season this week. The Warriors will be on the road at Washington on Sept. 5 with a 7 p.m. start. The Wildcats will host Winfield on Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.