The Wyoming Area Warrior Football Team went down in defeat to the GAR Grenadiers on Friday, October 9, 40-16.  The loss was the fourth straight for the Warriors, bringing their record to 2 and 4 for the season.

The game followed a similar story line to the last four games.  The Warriors played well enough to be in the game until halftime, trailing only 14 to 10.  However, with the exception of the Dallas game, the team has played poorly in the third quarter of each losing effort. 

The game seemed to start off well enough for the Warriors as the defense forced a GAR punt on the first possession of the game.    A roughing the kicker penalty gave new live to the Grenadiers who marched down field and scored on a 45-yard touchdown pass.   The Warriors couldn’t seem to get any consistent offense mounted in the first quarter, and a bigger, more physical offensive line allowed GAR to drive the ball in the second quarter and score on a 21 yard TD pass making the score 14-0.  The Warriors finally got in sync and QB Chris Murphy threw a 41-yard TD pass to Ahmad Bouie with 5:44 left in the third quarter.  Bouie showed his brilliant speed by outrunning defenders down the far sideline.   At this point, it seemed like the momentum was moving back with the Warriors as the defense forced a GAR punt, and Wyoming Area executed a 2 minute drill to perfections, moving the ball to the GAR 17 yard line.  Three incomplete passes led to a Katie Scalzo 34 yard field goal.  So going into the locker room, the Warriors had to feel good only trailing 14-10.

The Warriors received the ball on the second half kickoff, and a nifty punt return by Ahmad Bouie gave the offense good field position at midfield.  The penalty bug then reared its ugly head and suddenly it was  1st and 30.   The game went south from there.  The Warriors were forced to punt and GAR mounted a dominating ground game that the Warriors could not stop for the rest of the game.  Turnovers and penalties stifled the Warrior offense every time it looked like they could mount a comeback.  The Warriors lost 3 of 4 fumbles and were penalized 7 times for 57 yards.    The only bright spot in the second half was a strike thrown by Chirs Murphy to Aidan Marich for a 71 yard touchdown. 

The tale of this game can probably be found in one statistic:  WA rushed 17 times for 16 yards, GAR rushed 54 times for 288 yards.