Warrenton head football coach Jason Koper saw positive strides in the Warriors’ road loss to Washington last week.
Warrenton (0-2) fell to Washington 41-0. The Warriors kept Washington scoreless for the first quarter and trailed 14-0 at halftime. Washington has multiple NCAA Division I recruits on the line. Warrenton was led on defense by Kadin Stroer, who had 20 total tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery. Carter Tittel also reached double digits in tackles. He finished with 11 tackles. Aidan Bond added eight tackles.
“Those three have kind of been the core of our linebacking crew all summer and I thought they really stepped up and played a good game,” Koper said.
Koper thought the Warriors played a really solid game defensively. Washington made offensive adjustments in the second half that took advantage of the weak spots of the Warrenton defense.
“They hit us on the outside a little bit more effectively, which is where we were weak in our alignment,” Koper said, “They got a couple of quick scores and kind of put the game out of reach.”
Warrenton was led offensively by running back Austin Haas. He totaled 88 yards. He rushed for 51 yards and caught three passes for 37 yards.
“He was kind of the highlight of our offense again,” Koper said.
Koper thinks the Warrenton offensive line did a good job competing against the talent on the Washington defensive line. Koper added the whole team competed the whole game.
“We competed well,” Koper said. “We played with a lot of heart. There was no quit in our team. There were a lot of positives to take from that game.”
Koper stressed Warrenton’s progress early in the season, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Koper noted the immense progress in the Warrior defense. They are not missing as many tackles and not making as many alignment mistakes.
While the Warrior offense has not made as much growth as Koper hoped they would, they are still moving in the right direction.
“We’ve definitely got to show some more improvement,” Koper said. “Offensively, we need to be able to sustain some more drives. We’ve only scored 12 points this football season. So we’ve got to get into scoring. We’re going to mix some things up on offense a little bit. Try some different formations. Some different scenarios. Different personnel groupings to try to shake things up and see if we can’t get a few more drives to get into the endzone and put some points on the board.”
Warrenton will host Owensville (1-1) this week. Owensville lost to Eldon 27-26 last week. They opened the season with a 50-0 win over Cuba.
“They’re a tough opponent,” Koper said. “They’re always a physical team. They play aggressive. They play fast. They were a very, very good football team last year. They know how to win football games. So we’re going to have to play well. If we can put some points on the board, the way our defense played the first half and put together a first half like we had on defense and play that for four quarters, we’ll have a good chance this week.”
The game is slated to begin at 7 p.m. Friday.