The Omaha Westside Warriors stay undefeated with a 42-0 win against the Grand Island Islanders. Westside came out ready to play scoring on back to back drives in under the first three and a half minutes in the first quarter. Under Cole Payton’s three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, and a total of 179 all-purpose yards on offense the Warriors would’ve been likely in line for a win. However, to add on for good measure, Jack Wimmer and Avante Dickerson had key interceptions while the Warrior defense kept the Islanders under 150 yards of total offense.

“We focus on turnovers, we set goals every week for the first quarter and getting after them. The offense has their goals they need to accomplish, the defense has their own goals that they need to accomplish and it really motivates us to get after a fast start,” Wimmer said. 

Setting these goals motivated the team to get on top of the ball and start off strong in the game against Grand Island. For the past two games, Westside has gotten on top of the ball early with scoring a total of 100 points in the first halves in the last three games, when at the beginning of the season starting off strong in the first half was a struggle for the Warriors. Ben Radicida also agreed with Wimmer about the goal setting and how that helped the Warriors get that win Friday night. 

“Definitely our offense they have been doing an amazing job all year but they really stepped up tonight and that’s a credit to our coaches because we start setting goals for ourselves and that’s what really made us explode,” Radicia said. “I’ve got to give credit to the offensive and defensive line, they are studs, every single play they make plays. It’s so easy for us linebackers when we have such a good (defensive) line and great (offensive) line. We have the best line in the state and we just have athletes all over.” 

With the combination of Westside’s skill players prowess up against their opponents this year and the set assignments by the lines, the Warriors have controlled the momentum in all five of their games this season. With the coaches’ help this week Westside looks to focus on their goals and leave everything on the field to keep the undefeated streak going. 

“We just got to play our game, don’t let anyone come into our house, they’re not going to take a game from us so we just got to work on our techniques and get better and everyone does their jobs,” Wimmer says. 

On Friday, October 2nd, Westside will be facing off against Millard North for their homecoming game at 7 p.m. at Phelps Field.