Dallas Downer: Warriors Lose 21-7
The Warriors dropped their third straight game and fell to 2-3 on the season, after losing to a Dallas Mountaineer team who raised their record to 5-0. Dallas held the Warriors to 172 yards of total offense this sunny Saturday afternoon; including a meager 55 yards rushing on 26 carries. On the other side of the ball, Dallas’ QB Adam Goeringer threw three touchdown passes and completed 11 of 14 passes for 158 yards to lead the Mountaineers.
In the first possession of the game, the Mountaineers held the ball for over 5 minutes and marched the ball down the field culminating with a 9 yard TD pass from Goeringer to Dunn. Dallas pretty much frustrated the Warrior offense during the entire first half, as the Warrior running game from the shotgun was unable to pick up significant yardage. Chris Murphy was able to complete passes to freshman Nick O’Brien several times, as the Dallas defense was keying on stopping Sam Eramo.
Toward the end of the 2nd quarter with the score 7-0, Dallas threw a long pass to the WA 40 yard line. As the receiver hit the ground, the ball popped out. To the displeasure of the Warrior faithful, the pass was ruled complete. From there, the Mountaineers marched in with another touchdown to make the score at halftime 14-0.
The Warriors came out in the second half running the football from the “I”. They had a nice 76 yard drive featuring a 26 yard pass from Chris Murphy to Nick O’Brien, just over the outstretched hands of 2 defenders. The drive culminated with a 1 yard TD run by Chris Murphy. The momentum of the game seemed to shift back toward the Warriors as they faced a fourth and inches at the Dallas 28 yard line. A delay of game penalty, then an illegal procedure penalty, and then another delay of game penalty (probably purposely trying to draw Dallas offside) snuffed out the last real threat that the Warriors had in the game. Dallas added a third touchdown in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
Like every football game the Warriors have played this season, you can point to a few key plays that could have turned the game the other way. The long completion in the second quarter that led to the Mountaineer second touchdown was certainly a key play. The delay of game penalty on fourth down thwarted the Warrior comeback.
However, when one tries to look at the game objectively—the Mountaineers played the better game. On defense, the Warriors tackling was sub-par. The Dallas quarterback faced little pressure when passing, and the pass defense couldn’t make the big plays. Goeringer was very much on target with most of his passes. Julian Campenni and Stan Timinski played strong defensive games.
On offense, the Warriors could not genereate any consistency. The opening drive of the second half was the only drive that the Warriors could sustain. Penalties continue to play a key role in hampering the offense. In addition, Chris Murphy was sacked 5 times by the Dallas defense. Wyoming Area has been unable to run the ball with any consistency over the last several games. In this game, the coaches tried to run the ball from the shotgun/spread in the first half and had little success. Only when they ran the ball from the “I” in the second half, did they generate some offense. (Last week, the opposite was true as Crestwood seemed to thwart the running attack from the “I”). Chris Murphy did complete some nice passes to Nick O’Brien, but the Warriors were unable to get the ball to Sam Eramo, their best receiver. So you have to give kudos to the Dallas defense, who kept the Warriors to their lowest offensive production of the year.
