Webbers Falls fights back to beat Wesleyan Christian

JIM CAMERON SPORTS WRITER

The Webbers Falls Warriors mounted a methodical comeback Friday night to overcome a firstquarter deficit, winning 78-55 versus Wesleyan Christian in their home opener.

After a slow start defensively, the Warriors fought to reverse some early missteps that put them behind the Mustangs, 35-16, at the end of the first quarter.

Head coach Trent Holt was able to make some adjustments that slowed Wesleyan down enough for his offense to mount a long comeback drive over the last three quarters.

“We got down 35-8 at one point in the first quarter, and at the end of the first quarter, the score was 35-16,” Holt said.

The Warriors were behind from the start. “Opening kickoff, they ran it back. We run two plays, fumble and they scored. Then they scored again,” Holt said, recounting the sequence that put his Warriors in an early hole. “Then we scored, then they scored, then they got an onside kick two times and scored.”

Onside kicks have been a thorn in the Warriors‚ side this season, giving up five touchdowns off of the trick play in their first two games.

“We‚ve had that happen five times this year so far. Yeah, a lot of teams do it. I don‚t know why, but against us now, it‚s a pretty good play,” Holt admitted.

Going into the locker room at halftime, Webbers Falls was able to slow Wesleyan‚s offense enough to trim the deficit from 28 in the first quarter to 16 ending the half, trailing 48-32.

The Warriors were able to make adjustments to the defense and kept the pressure on the Mustangs quarterback, yielding dividends.

“We hung in there. We kind of changed our defense around a little bit and kind of started playing a little bit better,” Holt explained.

“For third quarters we shut them down pretty good. We recovered a couple of fumbles and we had four interceptions

SEE WEBBERS FALLS, PAGE B3 on the night, all in the second half, and one was a pick six,” Holt said.

At the end of the third quarter, the score was 48-42, and the Warriors were catching up, down by only a touchdown going into the fourth quarter.

“They scored late, but we couldn‚t have had any better coverage. We actually doubled their best kid – both of our kids were there,” Holt said.

After three long quarters, the Warriors offense was able to take the lead in the fourth quarter, and closed out the game with an amazing 23-point cushion after trailing for three quarters.

“We hung in there, we kept fighting. We finally played a little defense, or better defense. It was nuts.

“Offensively, we played well. We only fumbled once. We threw the ball two times, and one was for pretty good yards and we almost scored on it. We didn‚t try to throw it. All but 42 yards were on the ground,” Holt explained.

The Warriors‚ offense was able to run the ball well. Quarterback Maddux Shelby led the way with 24 carries for 256 yards and seven rushing touchdowns and completed one pass for 42 yards. Shelby also had three interceptions playing defense, one that he took to the house as a pick six. Zane Nolan had nine carries for 175 yards and two touchdowns, and Justin Cole caught the only completed pass for a 42-yard gain.

Defensively, Caden Dishman recorded an interception, and Riley Ogg recovered a fumble created by Shebly.

The Warriors stay at home Friday to play Arkoma, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.