On Friday, Sept. 30, the varsity football team lost to the Cedar Ridge Raiders 41-14, making the Warrior’s record 3-2. Coming off from the bye week, the Warriors came into the game with confidence and a new game plan, the run game.

The first quarter was the strongest for the Warriors, ending 14-0 with two big touchdowns bracketing the quarter. The Warriors supported a healthy run game supplemented by an interception and many great defensive plays by the defensive line.

“We worked on our blocking and tackling over the bye week,” Coach Anthony Wood said. “We just tried to tie down the fundamentals of football to try and supplement our talent on the team.”

The game sped up in the second quarter with both teams running the ball and running the clock down with it. Cedar Ridge scored three times in the quarter, putting them ahead of Westwood by six. Because of their heavy use and support of a covered running game, the Warriors wore themselves out by the second half, causing an unfortunate snowball for the Raiders.

“We really needed to start containing their explosive plays,” Wood said. “And we needed to start moving the ball consistently down the field so we could really start getting the game going.”

A tired offense combined with a defense that started to read Westwood’s blocks prevented the Warriors from moving the ball on Cedar Ridge’s defense. However, Cedar Ridge started playing more aggressively, causing a total of five 15-yard penalties and forcing the Raider’s offense to punt. 

“Right now, we got to stand up and really focus on and figure out what we can do in order to try and get a win next week against Vista Ridge,” Wood said.

In the final quarter, the Warriors tried to fall back to a pass-heavy game, hoping for a lucky break. Unfortunately, there was none, and the Raiders were able to hold them to just 14 points throughout the quarter. 

The Warriors will play their next game versus Vista Ridge at the Gupton Stadium next Friday, Oct. 7, at 7:00 P.M.