After having a close game for the majority of the first half, the Wright City football team came back out and eliminated any hope Winfield had for the last two quarters of the game. 

The Wildcats cemented their first win of the season with a score of 44-28. At halftime, they were winning with an uncomfortable lead of 19-14. 

“At halftime, it was clean up, execute, do what we need to do and run our offense. We were doing well and we didn’t need to do anything super special,” Head Coach Tyler Rickard said. “We liked what we were doing against them, we just needed to do it more often.” 

And that is exactly what Wright City did.

Coming out into the third quarter during the first play, junior Lavarious Green returned the opening kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown. 

“Everyone was going right and the middle of the field opened up. So I just made a cut, went straight up the middle and I only had the kicker to beat. I did a little high step and just took off,” Green said. “It felt amazing.” 

Rickard added this was a huge play for the team that set the tone and momentum. 

After Green’s play, the Wildcats added three more touchdowns. Quinn Schnarre ran for a 40-yard touchdown and Dayton Humphreys rushed for a six-yard touchdown. 

McRoberts added a 14-yard touchdown run as well in the third quarter and gained 227 yards total. 

In addition, Duan McRoberts ran a 74-yard and a 10-yard touchdown in the first half. Omar Ghannoum recovered a fumble in the endzone, recording his first touchdown of the season. 

Gavin McCord and Schnarre recorded one interception each and Ben Rodriguez recorded five tackles. 

“The offensive line did a great job creating holes and Duan [McRoberts] made plays running the football and our defense played really well,” Rickard said. 

Wright City did end up trying a new offensive formation in hopes of running the football more and getting more physical.

“It was our offense still, but we just changed how we looked up front and they did exactly what they needed to do,” Rickard said. 

After their season opener, Rickard noted the team needed to focus more on tackling. Throughout the week leading up to Friday’s game, this was the focus in practices. 

He said that he saw improvement against Winfield in this area, but they can still get better. 

“We keep telling the boys that this is a journey. We’re going to continue to progress and we shouldn’t be peaking right now,” Rickard said. “We’re going to keep working each and every week. There were a lot of coachable moments from this game, but there were also a lot of celebrations and things to be happy about.” 

Rickard also added that he saw the team able to throw the ball out a little more, which allowed the wide receivers to make some plays and allowed the team to be more dynamic. 

Humphreys completed five out of eight passing attempts for 54 yards and Jersiah Higgins received 33 yards. 

Wright City will play next on the road Sept. 13 against Bowling Green at 7 p.m.