The trenches is where the play always starts, the area where masses of men battle to determine the success of a play either for the offense time for the play to develop and for the defense the opposite, they try to get as much pressure as possible from both the quaterback and the opposing line.
For head coach Paul Limongi and the Warriors pressure has been a big part to their defensive success plugging gaps and forcing the quarterback into bad situations. The starting line is made up of three guys Junior nosetakcle Graham Hoffart and Senior defensive ends Hudson Mead and Owen James, all of them have played every game this season and two are returning starters on the frontline.
“The defensive line has been a crucial part of the defense this year,” Nose tackle Graham Hoffart said “Since everything starts up front, if we don’t dominate the line of scrimmage and put pressure on the quarterback the whole defense is affected.”
The Westside defensive line has been the key within the Warriors success. In the Warriors five wins throughout the season the defense has over 11 tackles for loss per game, holding opposing offenses behind the sticks espically on the first play has been crucial to the Warriors success and has shown in their one loss on the season against Omaha Central with the defense only putting up three tackles for loss and giving up 236 yards on the ground.
The lines impact has been second to none in their wins forcing quarterbacks to throw under pressure or outside the pocket and not allowing running backs to break through holding all teams but two to under 50 rushing yards including a game against Millard West where they held them to just two rushing yards and their most recent game against Fremont where they allowed just 12 yards on the ground.
“They are playing unselfish football,” Limongi said. “They bring their lunch pale and hammer every day and work hard.”
All three guys play big roles on the team, James plays both sides of the line both protecting his quarterback while going after their opponents, Mead has been the leader of the defensive line recording four sacks last season and has already 20 tackles including a few for loss and Hoffart though the newest of the three has adjusted well to the middle forcing defenders to the outside where the Warriors swarm.
All three guys have great chemistry which is needed to keep each other hyped and ready to go
“The chemistry between me, Hudson, and Owen is a big part of our success.” Hoffart said “ Because of how much we hype each other up and at practice, we really work as one big unit
For the defensive line and the rest of the Warriors the next two games on the schedule will be the biggest games yet and will be the prove it games especially in the trenches They face two top five teams in Elkhorn South and rival Creighton Prep both of whom are 6-0 and both are hungry for a win against Westside. Both teams are ground and pound offenses with the running backs getting most of the workload and it has been a success for both teams so far throughout the season. Elkhorn South has rushed for over 1500 yards this season most of which coming from Fresno State commit Jaydon Sutko who has over 1000 yards already on the year. The Junior Jays are led by Angelo Walker who has been the most valuable part of the Jays offense going for nearly 700 yards and counting. Both of these matchups will test the Warriors well and if all goes according to plan for Limongi it should be some hard nosed football along with some wins to ride along into the state tournament.
