Vian renews Warner rivalry in District 2A-5 opener

Vian and Warner renew their high school football rivalry Friday night in Muskogee County as the Class 2A No. 9 Wolverines take on the unbeaten Eagles in their District 2A-5 opener.

Kickoff inside Eagle Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m. Vian (1-2) had an open date last week and Warner (3-0) won 33-14 at Chouteau-Mazie. In its earlier contests the Eagles defeated Savanna (49-0) and Central (28– 7). In their last meeting in 2005 Vian beat Warner 54-6, the Wolverines‚ fifth- straight win in the series. The Eagles won the previous five meetings (19962000) and since 1994 the series is tied at 6-6. “ They‚re doing a real good job,” Vian head coach Gary Willis said about the Eagles. “They‚re 3-0, they run the ball well and they have the capability of passing it with a good athletic quarterback (Jace Jackson). He looks to be their best player to me and they‚re doing a good job.”

A few of Warner‚s key players on offense are quarterback Jace Jackson (6-foot, 175-pound junior), fullback Ty Vinson (5-11, 205, jr.), lineman Carson Parks (6-1, 215, sr.), running back Preston Cannon (55, 165, soph.) and wide receivers Adam Thompson (6-2, 175, sr.) and Caden Thompson (6-2, 175, sr.).

“They‚re pretty multiple on offense,” Willis said. “They‚ll run the I (formation) and run the ball in play-action and they do go spread and throw the ball more out of that. They‚re pretty balanced. They throw more out of the spread but overall they‚re pretty balanced.

“The first thing on defense is stopping the run. We want to go in and hopefully control the line of scrimmage and stop the run and then just get after the quarterback on passing downs when they‚re in formations that we think they‚re going to throw the ball.”

Some of the Eagles‚ defensive standouts are defensive end Ty Vinson, defensive linemen Rowdy Girty (5-11, 300, sr.) and Jacob Girty (5-11, 286, sr.), linebackers Carson Parks and Preston Cannon and defensive back Julian Hensley (6-0, 180, sr.).

“They run a 3-4 (defense) and they‚ll walk a safety down a lot and make it look like a 3-5,” said Willis. “Of course they‚ve been playing teams that run the ball a lot so we expect to see that but we think we can throw it on them when they do that too. When they put eight guys in the box that takes a guy out of deep pass coverage.

“Taking what they give us by alignment is an offensive key but we want to challenge them. I think we‚re faster than them and we want to challenge them on the edges and deep so we just need to come out and attack those areas that we feel like we‚re faster in and get after them right there.”

Willis said the Wolverines had a good week of practice during their off-week.

“We had a real good week getting pretty healthy,” Willis said. “Michael Polecat had a bad ankle sprain but he was back in with the defense on Friday and Gage Carlton has a big toe that is giving him a lot of trouble but I think he‚s going to be better.

“It was a good week, just healing up and bumps and bruises on a lot of people, a lot of shoulders, a lot of stuff like that. After playing that tough schedule (three ranked teams) thank goodness nothing serious other than a toe that is taking a while to heal.”

Vian offensive linemen Cash Collins, Marshal Ross, Lane Jamison, Jeff Crow and Nick Scoggins helped provide protection for quarterback Diego Ramos during the Wolverines‚ last game against Lincoln Christian on Sept. 9.