(KWMN)- The Winona State Warrior Football team welcomed Wayne State College to Maxwell Field last Saturday and came away with a dominant victory, 38-14.
The Warriors had yet another slow start to the game, allowing Wayne to score the first two touchdowns of the game to take a 14-0 lead in the second.
The Warriors answered the second touchdown to make it 14-7 and Jacob Scott missed a 32-yard field goal attempt later in the first half as both teams headed to the locker room with the score stagnant at 14-7.
The Warriors opened the second half with the ball and freshman Kyle Haas orchestrated an 11-play 55-yard drive to tie the game at 14. That was the only score in the 3rd quarter.
In the 4th, the Warriors dominated. Starting with a 38-yard sprint from Ty Gavin to get into the endzone the Warriors took the lead. That was followed up in the ensuing defensive possession with a monster 79-yard punt-return touchdown from Darryl Williams. Scott kicked a field goal later in the half to make it a 31-14 game. The contest was capped off by Griffin Weigel when the Warriors blocked a punt from Wayne and Weigel returned it into the endzone.
Ty Gavin led the way rushing with 170 yards on 20 carries, a stunning average of 8.4 yards per carry. He also added two touchdowns to pair with Sam Santiago-Lloyds one touchdown. Trevor Paulsen and Kyle Haas, playing a similar number of snaps again, stayed fairly quiet, only throwing for 95 yards and 44 yards respectively.
It was a great win for the Warriors, as they walked over the previously unbeaten Wildcats of Wayne. Brian Bergstrom, in a conversation with the Winona Sports Network, was asked what he was most proud of in the win,
“The resiliency at halftime, the character and the growth that they’ve shown, just the toughness and grit…And proud of the coaches for the small adjustments that we made. And then we went out and executed, it’s one thing to have a good attitude and then to have a plan but it’s another to go out and execute…We saw the power of complimentary football again.”
Bergstrom continued, “I think across the board we won a lot of little battles which helped us win the bigger war.”
As great as the win was, the Warriors can’t ignore the fact that they started slow. It isn’t the first time they’ve come out slow either. Against Bemidji State, it cost them a loss, luckily that wasn’t the case on Saturday. The point is, a good team can play three-quarters of great football, but a great team plays all four.
“Win or lose, you have the power to learn,” said Bergstrom when asked about the mistakes early on.
The defense and special teams really stepped up in this win. With two touchdowns coming from the special teams and the defense garnering three turnovers and three sacks, both units led the way to victory. As good as the talent is on the defensive side of the ball, the production isn’t coming from just a couple of players, something that really speaks to how good this defense is and can be. Three different players had a sack, six different players had a tackle for loss, and two different players caught an interception. Bergstrom says that’s how the defense is designed, and that’s how they want it,
“It’s built on knowing what to do, knowing how to do it, and then going and getting it done. Know what to do, how to do it, and why we do it. It’s about doing your job…Do your job a million miles an hour. Once your job is satisfied…Then it’s [their] job to run like its the last play of football [they’ll] ever get. That’s what we call Pursuit,” said Bergstrom.
The Warriors have already turned their attention to this Saturday when they make the trip to Aberdeen, South Dakota to take on Northern State. As good as the defense was, Bergstrom says a big key in practice this week will be adding consistency to the defense, as well as improved tackling. With the offense, they must start faster, especially against northern. For the Special Teams, Bergstrom wants to hone in on the details in order to continue changing the tides of the game in favor of the Warriors.
One might suggest that there seem to be a lot of things ‘wrong’ with the Warriors even though they’re sitting at 4-1. Bergstrom responded to that idea with a resonating quote,
“Yeah, some people say ‘well you won the game, you had a great comeback’…Those are true things, I’m excited about them, we’re excited about them but we’re just in a culture here of extremely high standards. So we take the win out of it and we just look at each play individually for itself and THEN you can be your best. When you get all caught up in what was the score at the end, that’s important, our goal is to win yes, but if you want to get better the next game, you kind of gotta forget about the fact you won the game and look at what went on and where do you need to be better objectively. Those are our standards.”
The Warriors will kick off at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday when they face the Northern State Wolves.
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