Warriors celebrate homecoming win, visit Porum on Thursday

The Webbers Falls Warriors got back on track Friday night thanks to being at full strength as they routed the Midway Chargers 56-8 at Smokey Cox Stadium to celebrate homecoming.

The Warriors (6-1, 1-1 in District B-5 play) broke the scoreless deadlock on Maddux Shelby’s touchdown run and Aiden Turley’s two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead with 11:05 left in the first quarter.

After an interception by Brutus Robinson, the Warriors cashed the takeaway into points as Shelby scored his second TD on the following play, followed by Dylan Young’s extra point, for a 15-0 advantage with 8:31 remaining in the period.

On Webbers Falls’ next possession, the Warriors cashed in the drive with Dakota Moore’s touchdown run to up the lead to 21-0 with 5:56 left in the quarter.

After the Chargers (0-7, 0-2) turned the ball over on downs, the Warriors needed just 45 seconds to dent the scoreboard once more as Shelby scored his third TD of the quarter with 3:10 remaining in the period. Spencer Thao’s PAT increased the advantage to 28-0 after the opening quarter.

Braydan Robinson got in on the TD parade as he scored with 5:14 remaining before halftime. Thao’s extra point increased the Webbers Falls lead to 35-0 at halftime.

After the Chargers turned the ball over on downs for the fifth time in the contest, Zane Nolan ended the ensuing possession with a touchdown run. Thao’s PAT put Webbers Falls ahead 42-0 with 5:01 left in the third quarter.

The Chargers scored their lone TD with 33 seconds left in the period to cut the deficit to 42-8.

On the final play of the quarter, Shelby scored his fourth touchdown of the game. He then scored the two-point conversion for a 50-8 lead after three quarters.

After Midway turned the ball over on downs for the sixth time, Thao ended the game on a touchdown run with 8:37 left to play to get the game to mercyrule status and end the game without a conversion attempt needed.

“It was good to see them out there,” Webbers Falls coach Trent Holt said about having the players back who were suspended the previous week against Dewar for being ejected two weeks before against Cave Springs. “We never know if we could have played with Dewar. I know we could have played better against Dewar if we had had all our kids, but we didn’t. They’re good football players. They make us a much better football team.”

Being at full strength will help the Warriors have a better chance at ending the district season with three wins, giving them a 4-1 district record and no worse than getting second place outright — or even get at least a share of the district title.

“That’s what we’re playing for,” Holt said. “We told them after the Dewar game that we want to win four in a row, and at least be second in the district. If somebody can upset Dewar, then we have a chance at getting a share (of the district championship). It could come down to (district) points, but that home playoff game is big. We definitely would like to have one in that first round.”

The Warriors will seek their second straight district win en route to that 4-0 finish in District B-5 play when they will travel to meet the Porum Panthers at 7 p.m. Thursday.

“Their quarterback is a pretty good runner,” Holt said. “We’ve got to contain him. They’ll try to spread it out a little bit. They don’t throw it a whole lot when they spread it out. They have a big offensive line. Conversely, they flip over and play on the defensive line, which causes penetration problems because they’re pretty bigsize kids.”

Holt said the Warriors need to play their style of ball to be successful Thursday night, and try to get their second district win of the season.

“We just want to run our offense,” he said. “We don’t want to have to change a whole lot from what we’re doing. We have to control their different (defensive) fronts. We have to block. When we do block, we can’t get pushed back into our backfield. That will mess everything up.”

• • • To Get There — Take Interstate 40 west to Warner. Take Oklahoma State Highway 2 south to Porum.