Worth County’s football team showed some bright spots at the Jamboree Friday night. They held Kansas state runner-up Veritas Christian to a scoreless tie, denying them two scoring chances inside the red zone. In a match in which the JV had the field for most of the encounter, the young Tigers held North Nodaway’s varsity to another scoreless tie, denying them a chance at paydirt. But Worth County was outclassed by Stanberry, the defending state champs, giving up three big plays and losing 22-0 in the nightcap.
The Tigers have a long ways to go in order to be competitive with the state champions and they are in the unfamiliar role of underdog, with a new coaching staff and new players at key spots.
The first challenge in order to be competitive with Stanberry by Week 8 will be to get quicker off the ball; the Bulldogs repeatedly beat Worth County off the snap, even on the offense where the offense has the advantage of knowing the count and the play. Worth County made some good defensive plays on Stanberry, getting some good tackles on Bulldog quarterback Ike Heddinger, always difficult to bring down. But they gave up three big plays as well as a safety to the well-oiled Bulldog machine.
The second area of improvement was the turnovers. Worth County put the ball on the ground each of their first two tests, killing what looked like promising drives both times. They did a better job of taking care of the ball against Stanberry.
The third area of improvement was the penalties. Worth County was penalized more than all the other three teams combined at the Jamboree; it was a general variety of flags from false starts to a helmet to helmet hit and a late hit.
There will be no respite for the Tigers as they will have to get better in all three of these areas if they are to provide a test to Rock Port Friday night. Rock Port has almost everybody back from a team that made it to the Final Four last year before falling to Stanberry. Then, they travel to West Nodaway, a place where they have always had trouble playing regardless of the record book. Then, they travel to powerhouse Mound City.
The defense was farther along than the offense, with their two ends, Truman Moore and Shadow Briner, both regular guests in the backfield to disrupt handoffs before the play could even get started. Wade Rush, only a freshman, made a perfect open field tackle on Heddinger. Nate Pointer was in on some tackles for loss as well. He added a sack in the North Nodaway game as well as a touchdown saving tackle against the Mustangs when the quarterback broke loose from the pocket and was apparently in the clear before Nate used his speed to run him down at the 7.
Lane Craven, despite his size, was put on pass coverage out of the linebacker slot and performed well, not giving up a single completion or getting beat. Gavin Hawk showed a lot more speed this year and emerged as another candidate for the linebacker slot, covering a Mustang player perfectly on a deep airout.
On the interior line Austin Carlson and Josh Warner emerged as candidates along with Dalton and Tristan Miller. Austin blew up a handoff along with Truman Moore to help deny Veritas paydirt on their first drive. Josh Warner showed a lot more speed this year as he ran down a Veritas player from behind after he had been slowed down, setting up Worth County’s second defensive stop of that scrimmage. Josh also blew up a running play on Worth County’s first stop of Veritas.
On the other side of the ball, Ben Badell steps up at quarterback; he routinely had receivers open but was overthrowing them. If he can become more accurate in his throwing, the Tigers will be a force to be reckoned with in the air and never out of any game. Receiver Chris Alarcon was open for deep balls at least twice before coming out with a stinger in his shoulder. Wyatt Rush steps in as the blocking back and delivered some punishing hits; he will also serve as a powerful fullback to take the heat off emerging runningback Brevyn Ross. Brevyn showed some bursts of speed from his halfback position; another possible candidate is Wade Rush, who bulldozed over a Mustang defender to turn a potential loss into a short gain. Nate Pointer played at the position last year. Lane Craven emerged as another possibility at blocking back, delivering a punishing blow on a Veritas player.
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