The Nanih Waiya Warriors ran up 391 yards of total offense on Thursday night against Philadelphia.
But it wasn’t nearly enough as the Tornadoes rolled to a 54-24 win over the Warriors.
The Warriors fell to 2-5 on the season. They will travel to Pelahatchie this week in a non-division contest.
Coach James Courtney knew going in that his team had very little room for error against the Tornadoes.
“We just didn’t have any margin for error,” Courtney said. “When you turn the ball over and commit penalties, you aren’t going to beat any team that is drastically more athletic than you are. We just couldn’t find a way to stop them and sure can’t when we are turning the ball over to them.”
He continued, “Penalties and turnovers are just killing us. You just can’t have them when you are behind the eight-ball to start with as far as athletes are concerned. A blind man can see that Philadelphia has more athletes than we do. They could really run."
The Warriors got the ball to start the game and immediately moved down the field. The Warriors went 75 yards in seven plays as Tanner Courtney scored on a quarterback sneak. Jake Vick’s PAT was good, and the Warriors led 7-0 with 8:49 left in the first quarter.
It didn’t take the Tornadoes long to respond as they went 65 yards in six plays and scored on a 30-yard touchdown pass with 6:09 left in the first quarter to tie the game at 7-7.
The Warriors then lost the ball on a fumble near midfield, giving the Tornadoes the ball at the Philly 43.
The Tornadoes then went 57 yards in eight plays and scored on a 5-yard run with 28.9 seconds left to go in the first quarter.
The Warriors then went 65 yards in nine plays as Courtney hit Vick on a 16-yard pass play with 7:17 left in the first half. Vick hit the PAT as the Warriors tied the score at 7-7.
But it was all Tornadoes from that point as they scored three straight times to end the half on a 19-yard run, a 78-yard pass, and a 3-yard run to lead 34-14 at the half.
“Our offensive numbers should have been good enough to win,” Courtney said. “But it’s not when you turn the ball over. And there were some of those drives where we didn’t get anything out of them. No doubt, we did some good stuff. We just have to find a way to finish drives and have to find a way to put it all together.”
The Tornadoes got the ball to start the second half and scored on a 7-yard run to go up 41-14.
The Warriors then put together a nine-play drive but turned the ball over on downs at the Philly 1. Two plays later, the Nanih Waiya defense recorded a safety to cut the lead to 41-16.
The Warriors then drove 11 plays before turning the ball over on downs at the Philly 10. The Tornadoes then ripped off a 90-yard run and extended the lead to 48-16.
The Warriors put together another long drive as they went 80 yards in 12 plays and scored on a 3-yard run by Briton Boler with 4:51 left in the game. Boler also ran in the two-point conversion, and the Tornadoes led 48-24.
The Tornadoes finished with a five-play, 63-yard drive and scored on a 10-yard run with 3:11 left in the game for the final margin of 54-24.
The Warriors had 244 yards rushing and 147 yards passing for 391 yards of total offense. Courtney was 10-of-17 passing while Vick had six catches for 107 yards. Jones had three catches for 32 yards.
Stanton had 22 carries for 73 carries while Mason Jones had eight carries for 55 yards. Bo Simpson had 40 yards on six carries while Boler had 33 yards on seven carries.
