Following their subjugation of the Manor Mustangs a week prior, the Warriors held high hopes for their home game against the Hutto Hippos on Thursday, Oct. 2. Despite a slow start, the team accelerated forth with an aggressive, carry-heavy strategy, setting them ahead for the game’s first half. However, several discouraging penalties against the Warriors in the second half enabled the Hippos to take advantage of the Warriors’ persistent mistakes and recover, ending the night in a 18-34 Warrior loss. 

Despite the Warriors’ crushing failure to keep their initial lead, their offense and defense maintained its trend of growth seen in previous games, continuing the team’s progress in a transitional season. 

“We fought hard, were leading at half, played good in the second half, but unfortunately just could not finish the game,” Weston Franz ‘27 said. “We ran the ball great, [but] overall, it’s little things that we gotta clean up.” 

Starting the game at the 50 yard line, the Warriors set an offensive opening with a complete pass to Drew Norrell ‘26. The Hippos quickly caught on and put an abrupt stop to the Warriors’ early gain in momentum through an interception to give Hutto control of the ball. This alternating success and setback stationed a mistake-heavy tone for the game early on. Throughout the game, these faults also appeared as repeated fumbles and flags on the field for both sides. 

“I think we made a lot of mistakes. If we were playing more mistake free, then the outcome would have been different,” Asher David ‘26 said. 

The Warrior defense showcased a particular excellence that held strong against the combative Hippos early on. Following a trend started in their game against the Cedar Ridge Raiders, the Warriors frequently forced their opposition to third and fourth downs. At the same time, a penalty  on the field against the Hippos for roughing a Warrior passer demonstrated a belligerence in the Hippos’ strategy to ram through the Warrior defense. The Warriors persisted as the ball returned to their possession, with Wade Allen ‘26 carrying the ball, succeeding in getting a first down 16 yards from the opposing endzone. After another quick first down from Cooper Waits ‘27, Allen ran the ball to the endzone to score the Warriors’ first touchdown of the night, completing a conversion to set the Warrior lead 7-0 halfway into the first quarter. 

“We thought offensively, we could run the ball all over them, and we did a successful job. [Defense] held [their] explosive offense pretty well [too] for most of the game,” David said. “We were encouraged by what we saw.” 

The Warriors kept a fortified defense to round out the first quarter with their lead. Going into the second quarter, however, the team’s offensive plays found weakness in the form of several incomplete passes. The Hippos capitalized on this gap, forcing in their first touchdown of the night, closing the score gap at 7-7. With the ball again, the Warriors made up for several incomplete passes as Allen made two first downs, further advancing the Warriors on the field and growing their confidence. Taking advantage of a Hippo illegal substitution penalty, the Warriors got to redo a blocked kick, with Josh Jack ‘26 scoring a field goal to round off the half with a 10-7 Warrior lead. 

“To see the ball move down the field is a confidence boost, and everybody just lifts up a little bit,” David said. “We’re trying [to do] a better job of staying like that all the time, be able to build that confidence, get a big first down.”

Back in the second half, with the Hippos starting on offense, the Warriors struggled to match a new Hippos strategy of getting first downs from long passes. Along with several fumbles on the Warrior side, this gap in play strategy cost the team: the Hippos scored two back-to-back touchdowns early into the third quarter, doubling the Hippo lead 21-10. While this quick jump by the Hippos dampened the Warriors strength, the Warriors quickly regained their footing with several successive complete passes that progressed the ball down the field. With a long pass from Waits to Norrell, followed by a successful two point conversion, the Warriors put the score neck and neck at 18-21. The Hippos forced back quickly, catching and running a punt all the way to the endzone and once again pulling ahead 28-18 to round off the third quarter. 

“We always talk about ‘setback, get it back,’ David said. “Whenever we have a setback and mistake, we always yell ‘get it back’ on the sidelines. I think for the first three quarters of the game, we did a really good job with that, but toward the end, we dropped off a little bit, got a little discouraged, and that’s something that we got to work on.” 

Indeed, the Warriors suffered several flags and incomplete passes again in the game’s final stretch. Despite the Warriors’ best efforts, with under four minutes left, another Hippo touchdown brought the final score to 34-18 and smoldered the Warrior team’s chance at a recovery. 

“It’s a tough one because we feel like we were so close. I feel like we’ve made such great steps in the right direction,” David said. “We got a couple bad bounces that didn’t go our way, and that’s tough. We just got to do a better job at finishing the game.”

Following a bye week, the Warriors will take to Dragon Stadium on Oct. 17 against the Round Rock Dragons for the coveted annual Battle of the Bell.