Warriors home for the first time in 3 weeks, entertain Oaks Warriors

After not getting to play at home since their zero week season opener Aug. 25, the Webbers Falls Warriors will get to finally play at the friendly confines of Smokey Cox Stadium tonight when they welcome Oaks in a battle of Warriors. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Webbers Falls (3-0) is coming off a mercy-rule 60-14 road win over Arkoma last week, but only led 14-8 at the end of the opening period and 26-14 at halftime.

“We didn’t play real crisp in the first half, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought when we watched the film,” Webbers Falls coach Trent Holt said. “The first touchdown they scored, we had a couple of mistackles. I have small defensive backs, and they were throwing at the small defensive backs. The kids they were covering were going up and getting them (passes). That’s something we’re going to face every time we play a team. We just have to try to do better.”

However, in the second half of last week’s game, Webbers Falls went to town offensively, outscoring the Mustangs 34-0 in the third quarter to put the game into mercy-rule status — which kicked in with 3.1 seconds left in the period to end the game. Senior quarterback Maddux Shelby ran wild amid the Mustangs as he rushed for 345 yards and scored six touchdowns, while returning an interception for a seventh TD. All total, the Warriors scored nine touchdowns.

“Offensively, Maddux ran wild,” Holt said. “He’s a good football player. We blocked relatively well, and some of the plays he scored on were kind of busted. His athletic ability took over.”

Other than the work it takes to get Smokey Cox Stadium ready for tonight’s game, Holt said his Warriors are glad to be home for the first time in three weeks.

“Arkoma is not that far, but it’s still different,” Holt said. “We would much rather play at home. The exception is we have to spend four to five hours painting the field and mowing. Other than that, we would rather play at home.”

The visiting Oaks Warriors (1-1) are coming off their first loss of the season, a 22-16 home loss to Webbers Falls’ District B-5 foe Porum, which came after their bye week. Oaks held off Gans 3028 on zero week for a season-opening win.

“They can do some stuff,” Holt said. “He (Oaks coach Eric Douthit) has only got 10 kids out there this year. Their numbers are down, and they’re behind the 8-ball with kids on the depth portion of it and being tired at the end of the game. They have a pretty good running back that runs the ball pretty well. Their line blocks pretty good. They can do some stuff, and they’ll do stuff right. They’re pretty decent. Coach Douthit does a good job with them.”

Holt said his Warriors cannot take the visiting Warriors lightly.

“We’re going to have to go play,” he said. “We can’t just go line-up and say we’re going to win. We have to stop the running back. He’s the key to their offense, so we’re going to key on their running back. Our offensive line has to control the line of scrimmage. We come off the ball pretty well, but we need to get off the ball a little bit harder. We have to have some more intensity when we go block somebody. Defensively, we have to control the line of scrimmage. We run a gap-control defense. We want to make sure the kids get in whatever gap he needs to be in and control it. We have to cover in our secondary. We’re getting better at it. We’ve been running a lot of zone defense this year. They’re getting better at it. In the past, a lot of these touchdowns that they (opposition) scored, they were wide open. Those kids back there are freshmen, and one that didn’t play last year — but they’re smart kids. We’re in a lot better (defensive) position that we have been. We’ll only get better at the coverage portion of it. Our linebackers are playing pretty good, and the defensive line is playing pretty solid.”