Warriors believe home-opening win will get team going (EDITED)
The Webbers Falls Warriors won their season opener last Friday night, routing Canadian 44-6, which made the players happy campers.
“It was a big thrill,” senior Trysten Wilbourn said about the victory. “We were hoping we were going to get the win, and we did.”
The team only scored eight points in its season-opening loss the week before at Quinton, so the team believes it played better — but not perfect.
“I thought we played a little better, but there’s still room to improve,” junior Brutus Robinson said. “There’s a lot of things we did wrong. Hopefully, we’ve fixed them this week and get ready to beat Keota (tonight).”
Now that the team has its first win of the season, the players believe this is the beginning of more success — starting with tonight’s 7 p.m. road game against the Keota Lions.
“I think (the win over Canadian) has definitely helped out a lot to get our feet under us, knowing that we can do it and having our team and our fans believe in us,” junior Gunner Shelby said.
“I think that win has really helped out, and we look to get (Keota) this week.”
The team believes there will be a Week 11 game — a Class B, Division II playoff opening-round game.
“I believe this team can make the playoffs,” sophomore Thadan Yandell said.
The team would like to break the streak of losing their playoff openers, which has happened each of the last two years. In fact, the last the Warriors won a playoff opener was Nov. 10, 2023, when they routed Welch 64-14 before losing 64-28 to Weleetka in the Class B state quarterfinals.
“It would mean a lot to us,” Yandell said. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but I think we can do it.”
The players believe there could be a state-title game run in the Warriors, if the right breaks go their way.
“It’s always a possibility,” Shelby said. “It’s going to be a lot of hard work, and a lot of tough teams to get by. If we work hard, and have a little bit of luck, we can do it.”
Should the Warriors make it to the Class B, Division II state title game, it would be quite the exhilarating feeling.
“It would feel unreal,” Robinson said. “It would be awesome to be able to play in the state championship game.”
However, if the Warriors are fortunate enough to win the state title and bring the gold ball to the high school’s trophy case, then there most definitely would be joy in town.
“It would be something pretty big for us,” Wilbourn said. “It’s never been done (at Webbers Falls). It would be amazing.”
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TO GET THERE — Take I-40 east to Sallisaw. Take U.S. 59 south to Oklahoma State Highway 9. Take Highway 9 west to Keota.
