Head coach Brett Froendt was concerned about his team’s energy before its game against Grand Island Friday, Sept. 26.

But after letting Grand Island score on its second possession of the game, the Warriors put those concerns to rest, scoring 21 unanswered points to give Westside a 21-7 lead midway throughout the second quarter.

“The energy fooled me,” Froendt said.

The team’s first touchdown came with 52 seconds remaining in the first quarter as junior Mitchell Hagan completed four passes on a six-play, 63-yard drive capped off by a 27-yard touchdown grab by senior KaVon Neelon.

Two Grand Island offensive plays later, Neelon made another play, as he picked off a pass from Pierce Almond, the Islanders starting quarterback and one of the top passers in Class A.

Starting from its own 23-yard line, Westside put together a four-minute, 13-play drive to go up 14-7 as Hagan completed a five-yard touchdown throw to junior AJ Meeks with 8:08 remaining in the first half.

Just under four minutes later, the Warriors would force another Almond turnover. With 4:37 remaining in the half, Meeks batted the ball out of Almond’s hand at the Grand Island 25-yard line, where senior Christian Arnold would recover the ball for the Warriors. From there, it took Hagan one play to give Westside a 14-point lead. With 4:28 remaining in the half, Hagan found senior Forrest McQueen in the back of the end zone for a touchdown (1:13 mark in the highlight video. The catch is worth a look).

Grand Island would cut the halftime deficit to 11 with a last-second field goal.

Westside started off the second half by getting the lead back to 14 as sophomore Jack Finochiaro, kicking in place of injured starter junior AJ Nolin, connected on a 28-yard field goal. Westside headed to the fourth quarter leading 24-14.

To start off the fourth quarter, the Islanders would use short field position to cut the Westside lead to seven when Almond found Keenan Ketteler for a touchdown. Westside followed the Grand Island touchdown with a drive ending in another 30-yard Finochiaro field goal with 8:57 remaining.

The team’s would trade three and outs until under four minutes remaining, when Almond led his team on a 70-yard touchdown drive to keep the Islanders alive with three minutes remaining.

On the ensuing Westside possession, senior Mitch Schenkelberg, starting in place of injured starter junior Logan Duryee, dove over the line of scrimmage to pick up two yards and had the ball knocked out by a Grand Island defender. Grand Island recovered, and had one more chance to tie or win the game.

The Westside defense, like it had all night, found a way to put pressure on Almond, sacking him on two straight plays before forcing him to scramble and ultimately throw a pass on fourth down that was batted down by McQueen to essentially end the game and give Westside a 27-24 victory against the No. 3-ranked team in the state and hand Grand Island its first loss of the season.

The pressure on Almond was a constant throughout the night, and it, along with almost entirely eliminating the Grand Island rushing attack (41 yards on 27 carries), helped keep Almond off balance and out of sync all night. While the quarterback threw for over 300 yards, he also completed under half of his passes, using 37 attempts to get 311 yards.

“[The defensive line] did a great job, and they did it with a three-man rush most of the night,” Froendt said. “When you do that against a five-man offensive front, that’s pretty impressive. We had to bring some heat at the end just to get some pressure on [Almond], but the secondary was the story tonight. They did an unbelievable job covering all of the receivers.”

The win puts the Warriors at 3-0 in district play and in their last three games, which is a major turnaround from the 0-2 record the Warriors had in the first two.

“When you win on the road with a class organization and team like Grand Island, it means the world for momentum and our third district win, and that’s the most important thing for us: get back at home and go to work for district win number four,” Froendt said.

The Warriors face Burke at Burke next week. The Bulldogs are 0-5 on the season. Check back Friday for a preview of the game.

CRAZE Post Game Report