The Warrenton Warriors cruised to a five-touchdown win over Mexico Friday night to complete a perfect regular season. 

Warrenton (9-0, 4-0 GAC North) beat Mexico 35-0 on Senior Night to complete an undefeated regular season, Warrenton’s first undefeated regular season since 1995. The 1995 team won their first 12 games and advanced to the state semifinals. 

“The main goal tonight was to finish it off, go 9-0 and keep everyone healthy and it looks like we kept everyone healthy,” Warrenton head coach Jason Koper said. 

Warrenton scored three touchdowns in the first quarter to jump out to an early 21-0 lead. Charlie Blondin threw a pair of touchdowns in the opening quarter. He threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Joe Goldsmith on their first possession. Blondin connected with Mason Thompson on a 42-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the quarter to put Warrenton up 21-0. 

“We came out saying that we were going to go empty first drive,” Blondin said. “Hurry up, see how it went, see if they adjusted at all, but they didn’t, they just kept going. And then we decided to pound it and it worked too.”

Warrenton running back Austin Haas reached paydirt on a 73-yard touchdown run on Warrenton’s second play of their second possession after Warrenton stopped Mexico on fourth down in Warrenton territory. Koper said they wanted to limit Haas’ touches in the game due to his heavy workload this season. Haas finished the regular season with 184 rushing attempts and 15 receptions. 

Koper said Warrenton’s game plan going into the game was to get Blondin several throws early on in the game. They also introduced a no huddle offense to start the game. 

“We were hoping to try to kind of go to a little no huddle tonight and see how it worked,” Koper said. “It worked pretty good at times. It’s not something we’ve done a whole lot but we feel like we need to rep that a little bit going into districts.” 

Warrenton carried a 28-0 lead into halftime. Blondin threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Peyton Dawson in the second quarter. The Warriors took a 35-0 lead and triggered the running clock on Haas’ 3-yard touchdown run in the final minute of the third quarter. The Warrior defense stopped Mexico short of the goal line on multiple plays inside the 5-yard line on the game’s final drive to pitch their first shutout of the season. 

The Warriors wrapped up the undefeated regular season one week after beating Orchard Farm to win the outright conference championship. 

“It’s a tough ask to respond emotionally after a big win last week,” Koper said. “There was a lot on that game. The kids put everything they had into that game and you could definitely sense it a little bit tonight that we just weren’t quite as energetic at times as what we were last week. But I thought they executed well when we needed to again and made a lot of big plays on offense and every time we needed a stop on defense, they ended up executing on it.”

Warrenton finishes the regular season 9-0 one season after finishing the regular season with a 3-6 record. Several Warrenton players on this season’s undefeated squad were also key contributors last season. 

“After last year, it means a lot,” Blondin said. “Last year was rough. So coming back, all the hard work we’ve been putting in this summer, it means a lot to be able to have a good end to the season.”

While the focus shifted this week to the district playoffs, Koper reflected on the accomplishment of finishing the season undefeated and as outright conference champions. He touted the character, resilience and work ethic they displayed throughout the undefeated regular season. 

“I don’t know that they know how special it is yet. And it may not sink into them for some time,” Koper said. “One of my big goals with these guys is to hopefully be able to build that community, love and support. Now these guys because of their work ethic, their dedication, now, 10, 20 years down the road, we’ll be able to celebrate this team and they’ll have that to always look forward to and be grateful for. And I’m just glad I got to be a part of it.”

Warriors open districts as No. 4 seed 

Warrenton earned the No. 4 seed in the Class 4, District 4 playoffs. They will host No. 5 district seed Lutheran St. Charles (3-6) in the first round of the district playoffs. The winner of Friday night’s game will face top district seed Parkway North (8-1) next week in the district semifinals. 

“Hopefully we understand that it’s the playoffs and it’s win or go home…For the program, this is three consecutive years with a home game,” Warrenton football coach Jason Koper said. “You know, it’s a chance to go one of three times in school history with double digit wins. So there’s a lot of big things riding on this week.” 

Friday night’s district quarterfinal matchup will kick off at 7 p.m.