Images by Brad Davis
New Richmond – When the Westside Renegades ran out of the tunnel Friday evening in New Richmond, they were holding the Golden Shovel. Three hours later it was in Wyoming East’s possession.
Running a variation of the wildcat, Wyoming East’s Chandler Johnson ran for 169 yards and two touchdowns as the Warriors avenged last season’s 57-32 loss to the Renegades Friday in the War Zone.
With the expectation that sophomore Jackson Danielson would be running the offense at quarterback, East head coach Jimmy Adkins relied on an offense that helped him pick up his first win as a head coach a year ago.
“If you remember we actually went into that last year,” Adkins said. “We ran that last year with River View. We haven’t showed it in either of these scrimmages. We watched film on Westside and we felt like they struggled at the ends so why not line it up and run it down their throat? So that’s what we did.”
“It was easy to adjust to,” Johnson said of the offense. “We’ve been working on it in practice every week so, I kind of knew what to expect and the line was putting in work. I’ve gotta give them credit. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything without them.”
With Johnson as a ball carrier the Warriors faced little resistance pounding the rock, though it took awhile to turn those runs into points. Still when they did it was the junior putting the points up. He did so with runs of 25 and 17 yards in the second quarter, staking the Warriors to a 14-0 lead before the break.
Meanwhile Westside’s offense was able to move into East territory regularly but turnovers and penalties stalled their drives out. The first miscue came when a passing play broke down in the third and Johnson cleaned it up on defense with a sack of Westside quarterback Jaxon Cogar. The drive later ended with another sack, this one on fourth down at the 2:17 mark of the first quarter.
The second quarter wasn’t much better as three bad snaps proved costly for the Renegades. The first came with 10 minutes left in the half, sailing over the head over Cogar and resulting in a loss of 14 yards. The second came on second down and the third came with 5:32 left in the half with the Renegades driving into East territory. The third proved costly as it resulted in a fumble recovery by East.
“I think we had one drive all game where we didn’t get in plus territory,” Westside head coach Tyler Dunigon said. “We were able to move the ball well. Whether it be the fumbled snap or the penalties, once we got into plus territory or the red zone we just didn’t finish it off.”
Wyoming East with a fumble recovery on a bad Westside snap pic.twitter.com/86q3sIPdIg
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) August 28, 2021
The Renegades finally found some momentum at the end of the first half as Cogar connected with Andy Elkins for a 23-yard scoring strike with 53 seconds left. That was the last offensive highlight of the evening for the Renegades who turned the ball over twice in the first half, trading interceptions with East.
For the Warriors, Johnson wasn’t the only one enjoying the spoils of a stout run game. Senior Tristan Hall scored on runs of one yard and 10 to account for East’s second-half touchdowns.
On the opposite side it was a different story. Though Cogar was able to drive the offense with his legs, he struggled to complete passes in the second half, going 3-for-15 with an interception. To his credit though his receivers provided little help. When plays broke down he was able to find some of his playmakers on the outside but drops and overthrows left the Renegades empty-handed.
“It’s tough,” Dunigon said. “With the ineligibility rule that came out the other day, that ruled our four starters for us and we’ve got two more on the offensive line that are injured. It kind of puts a little bit of pressure on you, you get some happy feet and (Jaxon’s) good. He made some good throws when the pocket was clean, but as far as the drops go it’s inexperience. It’s the first tough game where I know the score’s 28-6 but a couple missed throws and a couple catches and we’re either right in it or winning the thing.”
On the defensive side of the ball Dunigon thought the Warriors may elect to roll with the offense they did given how it worked against them in the past.
“It doesn’t shock me,” Dunigon said. “We traded film and they got the Van film. Van, we weren’t expecting them to run the single wing. When we prepared for the Van scrimmage we prepared for them to be spread. When me and Jimmy traded film me and (assistant coach) Noel (Cogar) were talking and it wasn’t the single wing, but it was either a power or counter and with the guys we had out it was tough on us. They gashed us.”
The Golden Shovel returns to Wyoming East pic.twitter.com/N16MGmBoTD
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) August 28, 2021
Contact Tyler Jackson at tylerjackson@lootpress.com, call him at 304-731-5542 and follow on Twitter @tjack94
W: 0 6 0 0 – 6
WE: 0 14 7 7 – 28
Scoring Plays
Second Quarter
WE: Johnson 25 run (PAT Charlie Price), 11:52
WE: Johnson 17 run (Price PAT), 2:14
W: Andy Elkins 23-yard pass from Jaxon Cogar (PAT fails), :53
Third quarter
WE: Tristan Hall 10 run (Price PAT), 4:40
Fourth Quarter
WE: Tristan Hall 1 run (Price PAT), 2:20
Individual statistics
Rushing – WE: Johnson 18-169, Danielson 4-7, Zach Cook 2-14, Tristan Hall 7-66; W: Jaxon Cogar 17-74, Evan Colucci 5-25, Hansel Bledsoe 2-15.
Passing – WE: Johnson 1-2-22-1 INT, Danielson 4-8-62; Cogar 10-30-144-1 TD-2 INT
Receiving – WE: Eli Fralin 2-14, Caden Cook 1-22, Riling 1-37, Zach Cook 1-11; W: Colucci 5-64, Noah Lusk 2-36, Andy Elkins 1-23, Hansel Bledsoe 1-6, Blake Bledsoe 1-13.
