The Waco Warriors (1-0) will look to continue their hot start, while the hosting Winfield-Mt. Union (0-1) Wolves seek to get into the win column Friday night in this week’s edition of the KCII Area Game of the Week on KCII3.
The Warriors looked nothing less than dominant in their season opener a week ago as they shut out Central City 49-0, WACO’s third victory over the Wildcats in the last two seasons. WMU got off to a slow start last Thursday, leading the Wolves to fall at Easton Valley 59-22.
WACO’s offense is led by junior quarterback and running back Hayden Shelman, who ran for 93 yards and passed for 48, scoring four total touchdowns in the Week 1 victory. WACO’s other quarterback, Nick West, had nearly identical passing stats, collecting 46 yards and a touchdown.
The Warriors’ passing attack was balanced last week, with five different WACO receivers catching passes. Touchdowns were hauled in by senior Kellen Shelman and junior Levi Brown.
Warrior head coach Chad Edeker discussed what’s next for the WACO offense, “We threw the ball well, when you’re 8 of 11, that’s pretty good with two touchdowns, but we’d like to expand our passing game. We were really basic in our passing game, we’d like to make teams honor that a little more. We also need to execute our blocks, there were plenty of times we got four and we could have gotten ten had we just executed a little better.”
WACO’s defense made things difficult on Central City’s rushing attack despite a quiet night from star defensive tackle Adam Stafford. The defense was led by senior Raefe Davison, who collected four of his team’s 10 tackles for loss in the victory.
While the offense struggled out of the gate for Winfield-Mt. Union, the Wolves showed flashes in their week one loss to the River Hawks. Junior quarterback Cody Milks threw for 175 yards and a touchdown last week, including a drive on which he went four-for-four through the air including two perfectly-placed back-shoulder fades to senior tight end Max Edwards, who ended the night with 84 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Senior running back Nicholas Sparrow took the majority of the workload week one, collecting 37 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.
Milks also led the Wolves on defense, picking up two tackles for loss.
WMU Head Coach Scott McCarty discussed what his team would need to do to come out victorious on Friday night, “We have to make sure we read our keys and play physical on defense. Offensively, make sure we understand the scheme and just hit the hole hard. The team that makes the least mistakes is going to come out victorious.”
The game will be the first in-district matchup for both teams.
WACO has controlled this rivalry matchup in the Varsity Bound era, winning 12 of the last 16 matchups between the Warriors and Wolves.
Coverage will begin with the KCII Area Game of the Week Pregame Show on the KCII3 stream at kciiradio.com and the KCII3 app at 6:30 p.m. Kickoff will be live from Winfield at 7.