Tigers overpowered by Warrensburg 22-0 on Senior Night

Saturday, October 8, 2016
Nevada's Cameron Diaz upends Warrensburg's Connor Burson at the 30-yard line in the first quarter of Friday night's West Central Conference contest at Logan Field. (Photo by Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail)

Led by a bruising offensive line and the physical running of feature back Mike Flores visiting Warrensburg throttled the Nevada Tigers 22-0 on Senior Night Friday at Logan Field.

The West Central Conference loss drops Nevada to 2-6 overall (1-4 WCC).

On its opening drive, Warrensburg (2-6 overall, 1-4 WCC) ran the ball nine consecutive times, capped by a 13-yard Flores touchdown scamper around the left edge. On the 2-point play, quarterback Jaason Levine rushed in from 2-yards out to put Warrensbug on top 8-0 with 6:12 to play in the first quarter.

Warrensburg's second score of the night came late in the first half, when junior running back Connor Burson took an inside handoff and exploded up the middle for a 43-yard touchdown run. After a failed 2-point attempt, Warrensburg led 14-0.

With under a minute to play in the first half, Nevada junior quarterback Braeden Hinton connected with running back Zach Gardner on a 40-yard play-action pass to the Warrensburg 25-yard line.

Facing a fourth-and-7, the Tigers lined up for a field goal and then shifted its line to the left, eventually drawing a confused Warrensburg offsides. The five-yard mark-off made it fourth-and-2 from the Warrensburg 13-yard line.

Instead of lining up in one of its regular formations in order to pick up the two yards needed for the first down, NHS head coach Erik Yoakam elected to go with the exact same play. After the offensive line again motioned to the left, Hinton was left unprotected. The play formation, known as a "swinging gate," backfired, as a low snap disrupted Hinton's timing, forcing him out of the pocket as he was pursued by a bevy of Warrenburg defenders since he was left with no offensive line protection. Hinton's pass sailed out of the back left corner of the end zone, resulting in a turnover on downs.

After the game, Yoakam indicated he elected to go with same play due to being "low on timeouts."

"It was a play that we've scored on a couple times this season," he said.

Yoakam continued, "It just comes down to finishing and learning how to find a way to get into the end zone. Once we get inside the 20 we have our struggles, and that's something we're going to have to overcome."

After receiving the ball to open the second half, Warrensburg drove 55 yards on 11 plays, punctuated by a Levine 2-yard rushing touchdown, followed by Burson punching in the 2-point conversion, as Warrensburg led 22-0 with 5:45 remaining in the third quarter.

Flores finished the game with 137 yards on 25 carries, while Burson chipped in 145 yards on 22 carries.

"It comes down to execution on offense and tackling on defense," Yoakam said during his post-game radio interview. "We had a lot of opportunities on defense to get ourself off the field. It was a missed tackle here, a missed tackle there, especially in the first half."

For Nevada, Hinton netted 133 yards through the air, while Gardner compiled 93 yards of total offense.

Up next

Nevada concludes its regular-season Friday with a road contest at Clinton. (6-2, 4-1 WCC).

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: