Gans offense improves vs. Welch; Cave Springs is Thursday

WELCH – Gans put more points on the scoreboard Friday night than they‚ve scored all year, but it still wasn‚t enough in the Grizzlies‚ 9040 loss to unbeaten Welch in the first district game of the season.

Grizzlies head coach Brian Morton was able to get some offensive traction against the Wildcats with some help from his returning quarterback Hunter Walters.

Walters received his medical release during the Grizzlies‚ week off and was able to practice under center, giving Gans more offensive options, which were reflected in the final score.

“We got Hunter Walters back. He‚s released, so he‚s coming in and taking some snaps at quarterback,” Morton said. “I still have confidence in Nakota [White], but we‚re making some moves that give us more weapons, because Nakota‚s a great receiver and he runs the ball great. So it actually gave us some more offensive weapons.

With an all-for-one attitude and a fight that doesn‚t quit, the Grizzlies are not ones to give in to the mercy rule, even after getting behind 50-18 at the half, and only did so after being hopelessly behind at 90-40 and the game clock was nearly depleted.

“They jumped ahead of us that first half, then we just kind of traded scores after the half. We didn‚t quit, and that‚s the thing, they would score and then we would score. That‚s kinda how the game got out of hand. In football, you have that mercy rule, but our kids don‚t quit, so it went right down to the end before they finally mercy-ruled us.

Part of that offensive improvement was giving Welch new players to try to stop.

“Caleb Martin was a force for us on the offense. He had a great 65yard kickoff return for us that set up a score and was able to score four times for us off of pass plays, some of which he had to work to get them all to himself. He had a really good game.”

Looking ahead to Cave Springs, Morton knows that the Grizzlies still have a lot of work on the defense before they can expect to win, which is what the team will be focused on before hosting the Hornets for a 7 p.m. kickoff Thursday in a Class B District 6 bout.

“For Cave Springs, the big thing is that, offensively, we can move the ball good enough to win. But defensively, we‚ve got work to do to get our defense good enough to win.”

The Grizzlies have guts, and that‚s enough to make a difference. But they‚ve got to learn how to translate that into making stops by hitting their assignments and making tackles.

“Defensively, we‚re still dropping the ball a little bit because we had trouble stopping people. We‚re still missing a few key players, but we‚re still working on it,” Morton explained.

The Grizzlies‚ defense needs to slow down Hornets quarterback Isaiah Sam enough to keep them in the game. That would allow an improved Gans offense to move the ball against Cave Springs‚ returning lineman Kelby Sam enough to possibly win this one.