This past Friday, the third-ranked Warrior varsity football team headed down to Seacrest field in Lincoln for a top ten matchup against the seventh-ranked Lincoln Southeast Knights. Both teams came into the game coming off convincing wins against unranked opponents. However, Lincoln Southeast dropped multiple spots in the rankings. The Knights much of the season had relied on their running-back Nick Halleen to do much of the heavy lifting for their offense. Halleen was responsible for all four touchdowns the Knights had in the previous week against Lincoln Southwest and had a combined 342 rushing yards throughout the first two weeks. The Warriors defensive line looked to be up to the task against Halleen working a lot throughout the week on run defense.

In the first quarter of the game, the Warriors wouldn’t be able to do much with their opening drive as they would give the ball back to the Knights quickly. Nick Halleen would show up early and punch one in for a touchdown. Back to back punts would then end the first quarter with the Knights on top 7-0. In the second quarter another two drives ending in a punt would set up the Warriors at their own 40. A 60-yard drive that lasted just over three minutes on the clock would end in a 3-yard rushing touchdown for the Warriors, tying the game up at 7 a piece. The Knights would end up punting again on their next drive and the Warriors would look to try and get points before the end of the half. Inside the red zone, the Warriors were one big play away from taking the lead. However, Lincoln Southeast’s Reis Jensen would snag a Cole Payton pass for an interception leaving the Warriors with no points. The game would go into the half tied at 7.

The Knights would end up receiving the second half and end up being forced by the Warriors defense to punt it away. Jake Holmstrom would then end a 61-yard drive with a touchdown reception to put the Warriors back up by 7. On their next drive the Knights would get stuck with a fourth and short scenario on the 25-yard line. Rather than trying a field goal the Knights decided to go for it. The Warriors defense would prevail stopping the Knights and giving the ball back to the offense with just under four to go in the third. 49 yards later, senior kicker Jack Bush would send a 42-yard field goal through the uprights and give the Warriors a 10 point lead heading into the fourth quarter. 

The fourth quarter would be where things went south for the Warriors. The Knights came right out of the gate and drove down the field 80 yards, scoring a touchdown off of a Shadon Shannon scramble. The Warriors would be stagnant on their next drive and punt it away, still with a three-point lead. 

After going down 60 yards, the Knights were on the doorstep of taking the lead with 3 minutes left to go. At the 5-yard line, Koby Bretz forced a fumble and gave the Warriors the ball back. Bretz felt the importance of the big defensive stop.

“It was a huge momentum swing right there,” Bretz said. “We thought we were down and we thought they were about to score and big players seem to make big plays.”

On their next drive, the Warriors got pushed back even closer to their own endzone. With a 4th and long situation at their own one-yard line and still up by a field goal, quarterback Cole Payton came back onto the field, took the snap and slid back to take the safety. Even with this the Warriors still held a 1 point lead with 2:11 left to go in the game. Head Coach Brett Froendt was confident in his decision, stressing one big thing.

“Field position,” Froendt said. “We knew kicking off we might be able to get on their side of the field and we did. It was about making them drive the field versus just having a short field.”

After the kickoff, the Knights offense seemed to be too much for the Warriors. Nick Halleen would score his second touchdown of the game and put himself just above 200 rushing yards on the day with a 38-yard touchdown to put the Knights on top 22-17. A missed two-point conversion would keep the difference at 5 with 1:04 remaining in the game. The Warriors couldn’t quite punch in a touchdown and Junior McGinness Schneider would snatch an interception for the Knights as time ran out.

After the hard-fought loss the Warriors drop to 2-1 on the season and head into week 4 with another away battle against the 1-2 Gretna Dragons.