Warriors show potential during scrimmage vs. Buffalo

WORLAND - The Worland Warriors met the Buffalo Bison on the gridiron Saturday afternoon for a controlled football scrimmage between the two rivals at Worland High School. Both schools, whether it was the starters, JV or freshmen, turned in highlight-worthy plays during the two-hour scrimmage.

The Warriors showcased their athleticism and speed on offense, while on defense that same speed and athleticism allowed them to swarm the Bison ball carriers.

"Some of the highlights were the boys playing Worland smash mouth football. We had guys coming up and popping people and multiple players in on the tackle. That physical brand of football is still there and something for us to continue building on," said WHS football coach Ryan Utterback. "We'll continue to add more polish and if we can do that, get rid of those mistakes and continue to play physical football I'm excited to see what we can do."

The scrimmage against the Bison served its purpose in that the Warriors saw what they do well and things they need to work on.

"We need to work on knowing our assignments. Some of the boys are put into challenging situations where we're asking them to know a couple different positions. Hopefully, we'll get people ironed down for where they're going to be playing and from there they'll know their assignments.

"The miscues are expected after only two weeks of practice and limited game speed reps. [Saturday] was a good day for us to think under pressure and get that feel for game speed," said Utterback.

While the Warriors had their fair share of miscues, the encouraging sign from those errors were players asking their coaches how to correct their mistakes, rather than sulking about it.

"It's a building process and that's what we wanted from them. At this point we're just looking for improvement and have some good things to build on," said Utterback.

Friday the Warriors open their season against the Powell Panthers at 7 p.m. Last season Worland went to Powell and walked away the 6-3 victor.

That Week 1 win also proved to be important for the Warriors as it was a 3A West conference game. This year's matchup between Worland and Powell will serve as a non-conference game as the Warriors have moved to the 3A East and the Panthers still reside in the West.

"A great rivalry game right out of the chute. Last year we had all the playoff implications, this year not so much but we have that good neighborhood rivalry. We're looking forward to that and it should be a good matchup for us and it's going to be fun how it goes down," said Utterback.