Westside’s shaky start doesn’t hurt them in the end as the Warriors improve to 3-0 to begin the season with a 34-12 win over Millard West. This is Westside’s 23rd straight win as they haven’t lost a game since September 2022.
The Warriors began the scoring early with Tay Tay Jenkins scoring a touchdown on the first drive of the game. Scoring fizzled out after that in the first quarter and the start of the second quarter until the Wildcats got on the board with a field goal. Westside responded quickly with a 39 yard pass by Braylen Warren to Keynan Cotton for the second touchdown of the game, which was the score at half.
The third quarter was much of the same with no score until the end when Warren took it himself for his second rushing touchdown of the season to make the score 21-6. The score remained until late in the fourth quarter when the Wildcats scored a long passing touchdown, one of the only long plays Westside allowed in that game to cut the lead to eight.
Then it was all special teams and defense as immediately after Millard West scored Johnny Hurtado returned an onside kick all the way for a touchdown. This almost sealed the game for the Warriors and a Quinton Warren pick six to extended the lead further. Another Bryson Willams interception ended the game for a Westside victory.
“We just need to keep going out there and having fun,” Warren said. “The main thing is just to keep having fun, playing hard and play every snap like it’s your last on both sides of the ball.”
The defense was the key to Westside’s victory, only allowing 12 points on some good field position for the Wildcat offense. Westside also had nine tackles for loss. Leading them was Warren and Christan Jones with three each with Cam Bell recording a sack. Bryson Willams also has two of Westside’s three interceptions on the day.
“Our defense really stood out especially on the goal line,” Hurtado said “They were within the 20 twice and we really bowed our necks and got the stops.”
Hurtado who plays both offensive and defensive line had a very rare onside kick kickoff return which gave momentum back to the warriors and sealed the game.
“It reminded me of when I played quarterback,” Hurtado said. “I saw the ball on the ground and I thought I might as well pick it up and run.”
The offense also put together some really good drives. The sophomore quarterback went 15/23 with 159 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception he also got 36 yards on the ground including another touchdown via the rush.
“We played our game pretty well,” Warren said, “We had a couple of big mistakes but we still have our confidence going out there and playing our game the best we can.”
Jenkins also had a rushing touchdown along with 50 yards on the ground. Through the air Cotton had a touchdown along with the most receiving yards of 97.
Under head coach Paul Limongi in his three years as a head coach at Westside has had a record of 28-1 which the one loss was in his first season against North Platte but other than that Limongi has been perfect and capturing two state titles in two full seasons here.
Westside looks to keep its undefeated record intact as they return back home after the two week road trip to face off against the number seven ranked Bellevue West Thunderbirds.
“I feel great about this week’s game,” Warren said. “I feel like we can go out there and execute, we had a good, long practice and prep and we are ready to have fun and show what we can prove.”
The Warriors are one win away from tying the school record for most consecutive wins in a row set at 24 wins from the ‘81-’82 teams. It will be a big top ten matchup for the Warriors. their second top ten duel of the season, the first being against Omaha North. Kickoff is Thursday September 19th at 7:00.
