Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
The Warrior defense tries to bring down a Bronc ballcarrier Friday night at Worland High School. Worland lost to Jackson 42-12.
WORLAND - The non-conference schedule came to a disappointing end for the Worland High School football team. Hosting the Jackson Broncs the Warriors struggled to find their flow on both sides of the ball and ultimately fell 42-12, Friday night at Worland High School.
"Our big point of emphasis was how much a game like this hurts. It hurts to lose but it hurts worse when you know you didn't reach your potential. That's what makes the loss worse, we should have at the least been in that game. Looking ahead to Riverton and the conference schedule, essentially the playoffs start and it's going to be a dogfight. We have to figure it out and remain focused and be ready to go next Friday," said WHS football coach Ryan Utterback.
The past two seasons Worland (1-2) has dominated Jackson (3-0) beating them by a combined score of 91-27, but Friday night Jackson was having none of it. The Broncs seemed to have all the energy starting the game, while the Warriors were flat.
The Broncs scored first going up 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Warriors next drive ended in a punt but the Bronc punt returner muffed it and the Warriors fell on the ball to take possession deep in Jackson territory.
The Broncs team seemed to be imploding after that turnover as they began racking up penalties to which the Warriors took advantage of. Worland capped off the drive with a Rudy Sanford pass to Luke Mortimer.
The Worland PAT was blocked making it 7-6 Jackson.
After that, the two teams traded possessions but with a little over 30 seconds left the Broncs took advantage of a busted coverage by the Warriors and went up 14-6 going into halftime.
That late first-half touchdown by Jackson turned out to be a prelude of things to come because in the second half the Warriors defense could not get the stops needed and the offense struggled as well.
"They kind of grinded on us and morale got low, that's something we need to work on. They kept grinding on us and we made some mistakes. We have to figure out how to keep momentum or rally past things like that.
"Some of that was experience and we had a couple others that were communication. We have to be sure that we're speaking clearly and we all know we're all on the same page with the same coverage," said Utterback about the defensive breakdowns.
While the Warriors certainly had their struggles Friday night, there was a bright spot, that being their passing game. Down 35-6, the Warriors opened up their passing game to move into Jackson territory. From the Jackson 40 yard line receiver Bryan Viktorin used a good double move to get by the Broncs DB and Sanford, rolling out to his left, found Viktorin in the end zone for a 40-yard touchdown.
The success of the passing game is something the Warriors will look at expanding on going forward.
"When you're at the end of the game, a team, especially if a team has a lead, they're going to give you a little bit of a cushion and we tried to utilize that and make something happen. That's something we might look at if teams give us that cushion or coverage we can take advantage of," said Utterback.
Next week is homecoming and the Warriors will open their 3A East conference play against the Riverton Wolverines at 7 p.m. at Worland High School.
If the Warriors want to be a playoff team getting a win against the Wolverines is a must, as only the top four teams from the conference move on to play postseason football.
Morale is, understandably, low right now but come Monday, Utterback believes his team will be ready to get back to work and make this Jackson game look like an anomaly.
"Defensively, we're still looking at our execution, as well as our offense. If we were more crisp today by not putting the ball on the ground and fewer penalty yards, it's a different ball game. Not saying we would have won but we'd be right there," said Utterback. "A big part is going to be figuring out what we need to do to execute what we have in. We felt like the game plan was sound but you have to execute it as well. Maybe we'll look at how we're teaching it or maybe go back to the proverbial drawing board."
Added Utterback, "The big thing is we can gather our thoughts and emotions and get back to work on Monday. Ultimately, I didn't think we played as well today as we did in Cody last week. I feel we can bounce back from it and we have to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps, learn from it and move forward."
