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Warriors have their way in win over Wolves
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@acnpapers.com
When a team loses 45-7, the defense would seem to be the problem.
But it was actually the offense that cost Plano West the most Friday night in a 45-7 defeat against Arlington Martin.
"We didn't execute offensively; we have nothing to hang our hat on there," said Mike Hughes, West head coach. "I thought we would play well offensively, but we didn't and you have to give a lot of credit for that to Arlington Martin; they are a very good team."
"No doubt ... no doubt," he said. "When you go three-and-out, four-and-out, three-and-out and the defense has to stay on the field consistently in that kind of heat, you are going to be fatigued."
The results showed.
While each of West's first four possessions ended in punts, Martin turned each of their first four possessions into touchdowns and a 28-0 lead little more than two minutes into the second quarter.
And the Warriors spread the ball around.
The first touchdown came on a 21-yard pass from quarterback Brodie Lambert to Regan Luce. Lambert, who completed 15-of-24 passes for 287 yards, added two more touchdowns soon thereafter with a 60-yard connection to Chris Turner, who had four grabs for 88 yards, and a 2-yard toss to Kyle Hicks. Sandwiched between those scores was a 4-yard touchdown scamper by Cameron Williams, who made it in untouched to increase the Warriors' lead to 14-0.
That lead would balloon to 31-0 before West senior Jonathan Vincze recovered a fumble at the Martin 8-yard late in the half. Sophomore Auston Anderson scored two plays later, running it in from 13 yards out to make it 31-7 at the break. Anderson had 28 yards on five carries in the absence of starting junior running back Tim Okposin, who should be back for West's next game.
But that would be one of West's few highpoints on offense.
The Wolves amassed only 152 yards of offense on the night with senior quarterback Carson Smith running for 26 yards on 13 carries and completing just 6-of-19 passes for 62 yards. Senior Carlos Wiggins caught five of those passes, totaling 52 yards, and was also the team's lead rusher with 39 yards on 12 carries.
"Martin throws a lot at you defensively," Hughes said. "They put a lot of pressure on us and we weren't really able to get much done."
The story was significantly different for Martin.
The Warriors compiled 527 yards of offense in West's first game under the 4-3 scheme. Leading Martin's charge were Williams and Hicks. Williams had 91 yards on 14 carries and rattled off a 66-yard touchdown run in the second half that made it 38-7, while Hicks ran for 50 yards on 10 carries and added five catches for 133 yards and a touchdown.
"We are still learning the system, so that was part of it, but we've also got to tackle better," Hughes said. "We were in position several times, but we didn't wrap up and Martin has good backs, so they were able to break free."
West got an interception from senior Chris Howard in the third quarter, but Martin closed out the scoring three drives later with a 10-yard run from backup quarterback Garrett Lane.
That set the final score at 45-7.
The 45 points allowed was indicative of problems on both sides of the ball for West. Hughes warned about not wanting to give up big plays before the opener, but the Wolves surrendered three plays of more than 50 yards, had a lost fumble, interception and a blocked punt.
West will have some extra time to digest the loss, exam the film and make adjustments as the Wolves have a bye before resuming play Sept. 8 against South Garland.
The West coaching staff attempted to keep their players upbeat following the 45-7 loss, saying, "We gotta keep our heads up and get back to work Monday."
Hughes agreed with that sentiment.
"It's only Game 1," he said. "We've got to get back out there, work on our conditioning, technique, really all the phases of our game. But we'll get back to work and playing a team like Martin will help us get sharper. If we do the things we talked about and stay together as a group, I think we'll be OK."
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