Note to the rest of the folks looking to dethrone Nanih Waiya as the MHSAA Class 1A State Football Champions: The Warriors are getting healthy.
A key player (Tristan Conner) returned for Nanih Waiya in its 60-6 thumping of Hamilton Friday night, and more are expected to return Thursday night when the Warriors play host to Vardaman. And if not then certainly by the Nov 1 road game at Smithville.
“It will be good to finally get everybody on the field at the same time,” NW head coach James Courtney said. “I thought we finally played a complete game,” he said of the win over Hamilton. “We need to play as hard as we can, not as hard as we need to to win. I thought Friday night we played hard.”
With the solid Homecoming win over Hamilton the Warriors are now on a 7-game winning streak, moving to 7-2 overall and 5-0 in Region 2-1A play.
Courtney said this was not the time of the season to digress. “We have got to work on getting better as a team, adhering to our standards as a team and as coaches and players.”
The game against Hamilton was pretty much over in a hurry as the Warriors scored 20 points in the first quarter and 28 more in the second quarter.
The first quarter saw Devean Turner score on a 1-yard run, Austin Sanders run one in from 47 yards out and J.T. Stokes haul in a 33-yard scoring pass from Donovan Turner.
Second quarter touchdowns for NW came on a 4-yard run by Devean Turner, a 52-yard kick return by Sanders and touchdown runs of 1 and 52 yards by Sanders.
The Warriors’ Bryce Woodruff closed out the scoring with a 53-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Donovan Turner hit on 4-of-7 passes for 67 yards for the winners, while Sanders rushed for 108 yard and three scores on just six carries. Devean Turner had 60 yards rushing on seven attempts. Conner, who just came back from an injury, recorded five tackles for losses for the Warriors.
