Warriors offense cannot get going in 23-9 loss to Lander

LANDER — It is not how you want to enter the 3A State football playoffs, but the Worland Warriors football team has to quickly shake off their Friday night 23-9 loss to the Lander Valley Tigers at Lander Valley High School.

“We had trouble putting it all together,” said WHS football coach Ryan Utterback. “We’d do some good things, get a nice chunk of plays but have a penalty or miscue that pushed us back. We executed at times but could not put enough together that translated into scores. Our defense played really well but we have to score more than nine points to win a football game.”

Even though both the Warriors (3-5) and Tigers (4-4) had clinched spots in the playoffs, Friday’s game determined the 3A East seeding. The winner took the No. 3-seed and travels to Jackson to take on the West’s No. 2-seed, the Jackson Broncs. While the loser heads to No. 2-ranked Star Valley to face the West’s No. 1-seed, the Star Valley Braves.

The Warriors played solidly in the first half and only trailed 7-2 going into halftime. The second half is when things went south for Worland. First, they gave up a safety, then a long scoring drive to the Tigers that brought the score to 16-2 and the play that sealed Worland’s fate was a fumble recovery in the end zone by Lander that made it 23-2.

“We have to put enough things together, we can give Andrew [Edholm] the ball a bunch but the way football works you have to work in other things to keep the other team honest. It all comes down to executing and finding ways to reduce mistakes,” said Utterback.

Andrew Edholm continued his strong running out of the backfield racking up over a 100 yards rushing on 23 carries, and Devon Mercado was able to get into the end zone on a 35-yard pass from quarterback Rudy Sanford with eight seconds remaining in the game. But the Warriors offense just could not find their rhythm when they needed it most.

Bad games happen and for Worland, it’s unfortunate that it happened on the regular season finale.

The Warriors enter the 3A playoffs with a bit of a limp but the absolute best news is, they are in the playoffs. Whatever happened in the regular season happened and there’s no changing it. But as cliché as it is, all the focus is on their quarterfinal game against Star Valley. Win and they get to play another week, lose and it is time to plan the season-end banquet.

“We’re going to put today [Friday] behind us. I’ve talked about it before and we have to find a way to keep the intensity up and that’s what next week’s going to be about, the love of the game. We get to play football when not a lot of teams get to. There are teams that are turning in their gear but we get another week,” said Utterback.

Star Valley is certainly going to be a challenge, the Braves program is among the best in the state, but as most know, upsets happen all the time in the playoffs. And the Warriors have the personnel that can pull off an upset. Mercado can turn a simple pitch play into a 60-yard touchdown, Edholm can wear opposing defenses down with physical, bruising running style and the Warriors receivers, Luke Mortimer and Bryan Viktorin, can high-point the ball with the best of them.

“It’s a brand new season, everyone’s 0-0 and everyone’s a different team from when they started. We can take advantage of that by playing with reckless abandon and giving everything we got,” said Utterback. “Yes, Star Valley has a good record but there are such things as upset. We’re the underdog and on any given day anyone can beat anyone. A few big plays on our part at the start of the game and who knows, it could be our day.”

A preview of the Warriors and Braves 3A State football quarterfinals matchup will be in next week’s edition of the Northern Wyoming Daily News.