Through 12 minutes of play on Friday, Arlington looked like a football team that could hang with Class C1 No. 2 Wahoo all night.
Finally letting up a 1-yard rushing touchdown with roughly 5 minutes left in the first frame, the Eagles defense had stymied the Warriors up to that point with a strip sack and solid assignment defense.
The offense made its way down the field as well, but just couldn’t put together a scoring drive, flaming out once it got past the 50-yard line.
Of course, the game is 48 minutes and Wahoo went on to put up 35 points in the second quarter, ultimately coming out on top with a shutout, 56-0 win.
The final score didn’t stop Arlington coach Colter Mattson from seeing encouraging signs, though.
“That’s a heck of a football team that we just played,” he said. “They’re a good team… It’s been a few weeks since we clicked on all cylinders, and I think we did for a quarter. (The kids) should gain some confidence from that first quarter.”
With a running clock throughout the entire second half, several members of the Eagles squad were able to rotate in and get valuable experience. That aspect of the game was welcomed by Mattson, who noted past difficulties in putting together a full junior varsity schedule during the past couple of seasons.
Experience coming against a well-oiled machine like Wahoo meant all the more.
“We’ve had more developmental football played this year than we have in the last two years,” Mattson said. “We’re getting a lot of guys reps on the defensive side of the ball, really trying to build depth and build experience. That’s been one thing that we really have struggled to do — to get a whole JV schedule in. It’s huge to get kids game experience.”
Moving forward, Mattson said the 48-minute hurdle is still one to overcome. The first quarter against the Warriors is something to build off of and instill confidence, but that confidence has to lead to betterment.
“We haven’t come out like we did in the first quarter since week one (a 27-21 win over Raymond Central),” Mattson said. “We told our kids we’ve got some really good football players. We’ve just got to get ourselves wired right. I think that in that first quarter, our kids really believed what we’ve been telling them. Now it’s just got to be consistent.”
Arlington will head to Schuyler (2-4) on Friday, which is also looking for its first Class C1 District 3 win.
No. 2 WAHOO 56, ARLINGTON 0
WHS (6-0) 7 35 7 7 — 56
AHS (1-5) 0 0 0 0 — 0
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
W: Jase Kaminski 1-yard run, Emilio Zaragoza PAT
Second Quarter
W: Avery Wieting 9-yard pass from Kaminski, Zaragoza PAT
W: Noah Bordovsky 6-yard run, Zaragoza PAT
W: Bordovsky 17-yard run, Zaragoza PAT
W: Barrett Lavaly 27-yard pass from Kaminski, Zaragoza PAT
W: Kip Brigham 7-yard run, Zaragoza PAT
Third Quarter
W: Landon Fye 15-yard run, Zaragoza PAT
Fourth Quarter
W: Harrison Krueger 1-yard run, Zaragoza PAT
