Friday, August 18, 2023

Tiger Football Sweeps Home Jamboree

The Worth County football team lived up to its early billing on the first night of football, sweeping its home jamboree with wins over Albany, Stanberry, and King City. They held firm on run defense; they were gashed a few times on pass coverage, but they more than made up for it on the offensive end, where they beat the opposition time and time again with speed, depth, and power. The transformer for the new lights had just arrived, and the school discovered they would need more electricity to power everything up, so the board did a change order at their regular meeting. The lights are expected to be ready by Friday's opening game with Platte Valley. For Friday, the field was split into two haves, with two games going at once, with both teams starting on the enemy 30 yard line and running 12 offensive plays. 

Worth County 36, Albany 12
Albany had a lot of shoes to fill with the loss of Kemper Cline and many others, but Chase Cline, his brother, proved to be capable for the Warriors at quarterback along with receivers Kyle Emerson and Zane Rippy. On the Warriors first play from scrimmage, Rippy caught a long pass for a score, followed by another long strike to Emerson. The junior varsity did some good things, with both Ethan Lininger and Franklynn Taute shooting through getting some tackles for loss.

But the Tigers only needed three plays to knot the game back up. First, Worth County loaded everybody to the right side and Tyler New powered his way right through the Warrior defense and broke several tackles to score. Landon Wilmes then muscled his way to the 21, and then Bo Collins beat Trevor Atkins and Kole Emerson in the right back corner of the end zone for a long pass to tie it at 12. Collins did not grow much in size, but he put on a lot of muscle since last year, when he dominated the junior high circuit.

On the next play, the Warriors seemed to have New wrapped up several times, only for him to weave and juke his way to the house to make it 18-12. Bo Collins meshed right in with the older boys, and he put his newfound muscle to use on the next play, catching a short pass and muscling his way 12 yards to the 18. Lucas Frisch, who was one of the hardest hitters for the JV last year, got a turn at carrying the ball and took it to the 12. An offsides put it on the seven, and Landon Wilmes took it to the three. A pass interference put it on the 1, and Cole Ruby took it the rest of the way as the JV took over.

Hayden Sanders ripped off 10 yards to the 20, and then Caleb New was all alone for a score to make it 30-12. Cole Ruby took one all 30 yards to the house to cap off the night against the Warriors.

Worth County 12, Stanberry 6
Stanberry played Worth County the toughest out of the three teams they faced. On their fourth play, Colby McQuinn aired one out to Colby McQueen for a score to put Stanberry on the board. The defense did a good job keeping Stanberry out of the end zone the rest of the way on both varsity and JV, getting some good gang tackles. 

The JV moved the ball easily enough as Hayden Sanders got a block from Cole Ruby and ripped off 21 yards to the 9, and then Cole Ruby took a counter, got a block from Caleb New, and took it to the house to knot it at 6-6. The JV was moving again before the varsity took over, as Caleb New took a 20 yard catch and run from Hayden Sanders to the 10.

But the varsity found it tougher going. While Albany was impressive on the offensive end, Stanberry, despite being undersized, turned out to be very solid on the defensive end, playing assignment sound football and doing their jobs very well. Worth County got stuck on third and seven at the 27 to start and Tyler New muscled his way for two plays to the 18 for a first down. Then, New muscled his way through three tackled down to the three. They stood up New on the next play, but Landon Wilmes, on the next to last play, got two blocks and got a sweep to the house to make it 12-6.

Worth County 18, King City 6
While King City has been lamenting their youth this year, they turned out to have their strengths, with one of the biggest front lines that the Tigers will have to face this year, along with a quarterback/receiver duo in Cayden Wainscott and Ryder Sample. Worth County had the ball first and had third and inches at the King City 20. Tyler New got a block from Landon Wilmes and that was all he needed to take it to the house to make it 6-0.

Grant McIntyre dropped a sure long gain on the next series, but made up for it two plays later when he got into a collision with his defender but came away with the ball for a score to make it 12-0. For the reserves, Karson Briner tried his hand at receiver for the reserves and was all alone for the reserves and got a strike from Hayden Sanders after Cole Ruby set it up with a 13 yard run.

King City got a pair of long passes from Wainscott to Sample, which he came up with despite Landon Wilmes being all over him to get on the board. But Worth County was able to do a better job of getting a pass rush the rest of the way, with Elias Alarcon getting a pair of sacks and Bo Collins adding one. Franklynn Taute added 1.5 sacks for the reserves, with Karson Briner assisting on one. 

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