It’s go-time for the WACO Warrior football team Friday night when they travel to Central City to meet the Wildcats. WACO went 8-2 last season, finishing as runners-up in 8-man District 6 with a 4-1 mark. They were knocked out of the second round of the playoffs by Don Bosco. They scored 46 points per game and gave up 32 per night, posting 331 yards per week, 167 passing and 164 rushing. The Warriors will have a lot to replace on the offensive side of the ball due to graduation. Gone is leading passer Clayton Miller after a 99 of 175 senior year for 1,570 yards, 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His top three targets, Gage Samo, Isaac Rich and Louden Huisenga have also departed after combining for 87 catches nearly 1,500 yards and 22 touchdowns. Huisenga and Miller also led the ground attack a year ago putting together 220 total carries for 1,353 yards and 27 touchdowns. Top returners back include Nick West who was six of 11 throwing for 39 yards last year, Hayden Shelman and Trey Edeker combined on 55 carries for 272 yards and seven rushing touchdowns and Niles Reichenbach caught nine balls for 94 yards. Defensively, the top three tacklers Miller, Huisenga and Joel Meyer have departed after putting up 203 total stops, 26 and a half for loss last year. Edeker is the leader back after 52 tackles, a team best nine sacks and 11 tackles for loss. The Warriors forced 16 turnovers as a defense last year, Trey Edeker with two takeaways is the leader back. WACO ranked in the top 10 of 8-man football in 12 different categories.
Central City was 6-4 overall a year ago, 5-1, second in 8-man District 5. WACO eliminated the Wildcats from the playoffs in the opening round. Central City scored 49 points per week and gave up 30, averaging 400 yards per night, 331 on the ground, 69 through the air. The Wildcats will be without their quarterback duo of Matthew Klostermann and Kaleb Walker who combined to go 40 of 83 passing for 669 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions. Klostermann was also the leading rusher with 1,978 yards and 33 touchdowns on 216 touches. The pair of Josh Lindsey and Dashny Munyakazi return after junior years combined with 113 carries, 887 yards and 13 touchdowns. Kinnick Weis is back as the top receiver after leading last year with nine grabs for 177 yards and a pair of touchdowns. On defense, the Wildcats top three tacklers, Klostermann, Nolan Gates and Max Arthur depart after 177 total tackles, 26 and a half for loss and 10 sacks. Weis is the leader back with 48 tackles, a team best nine sacks and 14 TFLs. The Wildcats forced 13 turnovers last year. Central City finished in the top 10 of 8-man in 13 categories. Following their scrimmage Friday, Warrior head coach Chad Edeker talked about the keys for his team week 1.”We went up there and beat them in the playoffs and I know they weren’t real excited about the fact that we turn around and come back to their place for week 1 this year. They graduated a lot. They have about four or five guys back that played last year. I know they’re going to run the ball. They’re probably the only other team in eastern Iowa that runs an unbalanced line like we do. The big difference they have is they are foot to foot and we have to adjust for that and line up correctly. They’ll try to power on us and with our D-line, if they want to try to do that and move Adam (Stafford) and Trey (Edeker) and Tyler (Rogers), that’s a positive for us.”
WACO is 3-0 in this matchup in the last three seasons, including two wins last year by a combined 90-52 score. Action starts Friday night at 7p.m. At Central City High School.