This past Friday, the Warrior varsity football team took the hour and a half bus ride down to Columbus, Nebraska and set up shop for their fourth district game of the year. The Columbus Discoverers had had a rocky start to their district campaign, just barely losing to Creighton Prep and then getting blown out two weeks straight against Elkhorn South and Millard South. In those games, the Discoverers only averaged 208 total yards offensively and would need to change something to get passed Westside. The Warriors, on the other hand, came into the game with a 6-1 record and an unbeaten district record, putting them tied atop the district standings. The team hoped to head out of Columbus with an unblemished district record.

The Warriors came out of the gate firing as only a minute and 37 seconds into the game, quarterback Cole Payton found wide receiver Avante Dickerson wide open for the touchdown. After the Discoverer offense was stopped early, the Warriors would drive down the field once again. After a costly Discoverer penalty, the Warriors would be inside the red zone with a great chance to go up 14. Payton would send in another touchdown, this time to wideout Cal Weidemann and the Warriors would push it to a two-score game. 

On the first play of the next Discoverer drive, Westside defensive back Koby Bretz snatched an interception and took it back to the endzone for 6. On the point after attempt, the Warriors would attempt a little trickery handing the ball off to Grant Tagge for the two-point conversion and the team would be up 22-0. Three minutes later, the Warriors would go up another score with Cal Weidemann getting his second touchdown reception of the game. The Warriors would force another turnover and punch in two more touchdowns in the second quarter and would head in the locker room at half with a 43 point lead. 

At the end of the night, the Warriors put up seven total touchdowns and headed back home with the 50-0 victory. The offense continued to stay hot in the first half and didn’t budge an inch throughout the rest of the game. Senior Cal Weidemann, who was on the receiving end of two of the night’s touchdowns, felt the offense was just playing at another level.

“We’re clicking on all cylinders right now,” Weidemann said. “We came down, we took care of business, and we’re just glad we played hard and played the way we’re supposed to.”

Head Coach Brett Froendt has stressed all year the importance of the defensive line hitting their assignments and working for all four quarters. The Warriors seemed to be getting a push at the line all night against Columbus, forcing multiple errant passes by Discoverer quarterback CJ Fleeman and just about fully shutting down the Discoverer run game. Senior Spencer Schneiderman felt the defensive line really stepped up in the win and did truly what they are known for.

“I think they worked really hard,” Schneidermann said. “They always work really hard and we all trust them to work hard every play they’re out there.”

With the shutout win the Warriors advance to 7-1 on the year and hold the second spot in the district standings behind Millard South. The king of District 5 will be decided this Thursday as the Warriors will wrap up their regular season against the #3 Millard South Patriots at Phelps Field. The game will start at 7 PM and will be Senior Night.