West Ranch Wildcats 28, Lancaster Eagles 13
In a solid, well-balanced performance to open the season, your West Ranch Wildcats defeated the Lancaster Eagles 28-13 on Friday, September 12th.
The game did not start well for us. We turned the ball over three times in the first quarter alone, once after a substantial gain in the air to our tight end, once on a carry up the middle, and once on a punt that put the ball on our own one-yard line for Lancaster to punch it in. We went behind 7-0 on points we simply HANDED to Lancaster.
But, after that shakedown quarter, we went into overdrive. We got back the score and added another via a combination of runs from Christian Sullano and Trevon Manuel and passes to Josh Guzman and Max Newlin. I don't have my stats with me, but Connor Eichten might have been around 10-for-15 on the day (Sorry, Connor, if it was more than that) and probably had over 100 yards. True, much of that was yards after catch, but we connected often and well.
Defensively, we had two drive-ending interceptions, one by Matt Bruns and the other by Michael Remy. We had some breakdowns in open-field tackling, but we can work on that and improve. We did a fair job of containing the Lancaster run game, with only a few breakdowns there. Overall, we did well stopping the big play and stopping drives.
Aside from the atrocious punt debacle, special teams were outstanding. We kicked off five times, and I believe three of them went into or through the end zone. One of the two returns did not make it past the 25. We made all four conversions and had some excellent kickoff returns.
So, a solid win. Lancaster was not the best team we will face, but they were decent enough. We will need to improve, however, across the board if we wish to defeat our next opponent.
Next week: Notre Dame!
The game did not start well for us. We turned the ball over three times in the first quarter alone, once after a substantial gain in the air to our tight end, once on a carry up the middle, and once on a punt that put the ball on our own one-yard line for Lancaster to punch it in. We went behind 7-0 on points we simply HANDED to Lancaster.
But, after that shakedown quarter, we went into overdrive. We got back the score and added another via a combination of runs from Christian Sullano and Trevon Manuel and passes to Josh Guzman and Max Newlin. I don't have my stats with me, but Connor Eichten might have been around 10-for-15 on the day (Sorry, Connor, if it was more than that) and probably had over 100 yards. True, much of that was yards after catch, but we connected often and well.
Defensively, we had two drive-ending interceptions, one by Matt Bruns and the other by Michael Remy. We had some breakdowns in open-field tackling, but we can work on that and improve. We did a fair job of containing the Lancaster run game, with only a few breakdowns there. Overall, we did well stopping the big play and stopping drives.
Aside from the atrocious punt debacle, special teams were outstanding. We kicked off five times, and I believe three of them went into or through the end zone. One of the two returns did not make it past the 25. We made all four conversions and had some excellent kickoff returns.
So, a solid win. Lancaster was not the best team we will face, but they were decent enough. We will need to improve, however, across the board if we wish to defeat our next opponent.
Next week: Notre Dame!
