Nanih Waiya football coach James Courtney put it best when he said the Warriors are “in a rut.”
That continued on Friday night as the Warriors dropped a 38-8 decision to Pelahatchie.
Nanih Waiya is not 2-4 on the season and stays at 0-2 in Division 5-2A play. They will travel to Lake to take on the Hornets this week.
Nanih Waiya coach James Courtney said the results were similar to what he’s seen most of the season.
“We played hard but we didn’t play as well as we could have,” Courtney said. “We can’t continue to make mistakes. We can’t snap the ball over the quarterback’s head and do things like that. And that’s not the only problems. We are just stuck in a rut right now.”
The Warriors struggled the first half on offense and Pelahatchie struck first with a 3-yard touchdown pass with 3:21 left in the first quarter for an 8-0 lead.
The Chiefs put together a 10-play, 66-yard drive and scored on a 4-yard run with 2:44 left in the half to go up 16-0 at the half.
Nanih Waiya gave up a cheap score early in the third quarter when the Warriors snapped it over the quarterback’s head and out of the back of the end zone to make the score 18-0. Three plays later, Pelahatchie scored on a 24-yard quarterback keeper with 7:27 left in the third to take a 26-0 lead.
The Warriors responded with their only score of the game as Rico Moore scored on a 40-yard run with 6:24 left in the third. Moore ran in the two-point conversion and the Warriors trailed 26-8.
“They hurt when they got the back-to-back scores,” Courtney said. “They get the safety and then the touchdown and it’s pretty much out of reach from there.”
Pelahatchie added two more scores for the final margin.
Nanih Waiya had just 195 yards of total offense with 158 rushing and 37 passing. Rico Moore led the Warriors with 116 yards on 16 carries while Austin Windle had 36 yards on four carries. Tanner Courtney was 2-of-6 passing for 37 yards and two interceptions. Hagan Halfacre had one catch for 28 yards.
Pelahatchie had 333 yards rushing and 51 passing for 384 yards of total offense.
“We didn’t play terrible, we just can’t put it all together,” Courtney said. “The kids played hard. They had a couple of guys that could really run and they made a lot of plays for them. We are supposed to get some guys back this week and maybe we can put something together in these last two weeks.”
This week’s game
The schedule doesn’t get any easier as the Warriors hit the road to take on Lake and former coach and player Tate Hanna.
The Hornets have emerged in the last two weeks with wins over Newton and Philadelphia. The Hornets lost five of their first six games, including four in a row. The Hornets lost 32-21 to Kemper County to open division play but had an opportunity to score late and win that game. The next week, Lake beat Newton (24-0) and last week beat Philadelphia (43-37).
“With what they had coming back, I think they are a good team and probably the best team in the district,” Courtney said. “They have an explosive running back and quarterback. We have to be able to limit those guys. They have ran wild the last two weeks. They seem like they are playing a lot better and if they get their big nose guard back, they will be dangerous. If they have the nose guard back, they are the best team in our division. We struggle snapping on air, much less with somebody like him lined up against us.”
