The Westside football team took care of business Friday, beating Grand Island 45-13. Facing a 2-0 Grand Island team which had upset a ranked opponent, then-No. 9 ranked Lincoln Southwest, and boasted a quarterback completing 76 percent of his passes, the Warriors were able to get out to an early lead and never looked back, even without senior Lane Yates, who injured his ankle last week in Westside’s 14-7 win over Creighton Prep.

“We came out against a quality opponent that was 2-0 and we put them down early and kind of got their hopes down, and that’s what good football teams do,” said head coach Brett Froendt. “Proud of the guys for coming out and playing good football tonight.”

To start out the scoring, senior Drew Fitzmorris, who ran for 217 yards on 22 carries, ran the ball for a 12-yard touchdown, his first of three touchdown runs in the game, with 9:59 remaining in the first quarter. After senior Christian Hagan connected on the PAT, Westside was up 7-0. Grand Island drove down the field, but missed a 35-yard field goal attempt.

Westside scored again with 6:56 remaining in the first quarter when Hagan, who was 9-15 passing for 148 yards, completed a 27-yard touchdown pass, his first of the season, to senior Luke Biggs, putting the Warriors up 14-0. In the second quarter, with 11:13 left in the half, Fitzmorris ran in his second touchdown of the game, on an 18-yard handoff, putting the Warriors up 21-0.

Grand Island opened up their scoring with 6:11 remaining in the half on a 42-yard touchdown throw, making the score 21-7. Westside countered with a 40-yard field goal by Hagan, making him 2-4 on field goals for the year, and giving Westside a 24-7 lead. With 2:22 left in the first half, senior Jalen Cox-Martin intercepted a Grand Island pass and returned it for a 21-yard touchdown, putting the Warriors up by 24, 31-7.

In the second half, Fitzmorris scored his third and final touchdown. With 9:05 left in the third quarter, Fitzmorris took a direct snap and ran it two yards for the score, making it 38-7 Warriors. The Warriors made the score 45-7 when junior Mitch Schenkelberg scored on a three-yard run with 5:39 left in the third quarter.

Grand Island was able to put up six more points, with a touchdown pass with 1:17 left in the game, followed by a blocked extra point attempt, but it was too little, too late for the Islanders.

With the big win, the Warriors were able to play most of their back-ups and inexperienced players. Froendt was pleased with their performance.

“They did just fine,” Froendt said. “They controlled the ball. We didn’t give it up, so that’s the most important part.”

After the win, and a loss by then-No. 1 Millard West to Burke, the Warriors are ranked No. 2 in the state, behind only Omaha North. The Warriors go on to play unranked Fremont, who is 1-2 on the season and coming off a 42-17 loss to 3-0 Norfolk. The game is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, at Fremont. Froendt said the Warriors have a few things to work on this week.

“Getting better ball control,” Froendt said. “We still have a lot of penalties. We’ve got to clean that type of thing up. Overall, just play Warrior football — be physical and we’ve got to tackle a lot better than we have been.”

Check Westside Wired on Thursday for a preview of the game.