Warriors rounding into form

The record might not yet reflect it, but the Waubonsie Valley football team is starting to look more and more like a playoff squad.

After three losses to open the season, the Warriors got on track last week with a win over rival Neuqua Valley. That momentum carried over into Friday's homecoming game in which the Warriors (2-3, 2-1) excelled on offense, defense and the kicking game in beating Elgin 46-21.

"I wanted to win pretty badly," said Warriors quarterback Tyler Castro, who passed for three scores in the game and also added a 1-yard TD run. "I have never lost a homecoming game, and I think it's been a long time since we lost one here."

Castro led Waubonsie on a 74-yard scoring drive that was capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass to Alex Stokowski late in the first quarter. The Maroons (0-5, 0-2) answered with an 80-yard drive that ended with the first of three TD catches by Jamal Cook, who finished the night with 5 catches for 123 yards and three scores.

But the 7-7 game didn't stay close long as the hosts used a balanced attack that featured Castro's passing and the running of Chris Harris, who broke out for 157 yards on the ground in his first action this season after returning from injury.

While Harris and Castro each had 1-yard TD runs and Warriors kicker Mitch Ewald booted a 43-yard field goal, Waubonsie built a 24-7 lead at the half and grew the margin to 33-7 in the third quarter before Elgin quarterback Tom Roth hooked up with Cook on an 82-yard TD.

But Roth seldom had enough time to come up with big plays as he was sacked four times by an inspired Warriors defense and hurried on several other occasions. He did complete 13 of 29 passes for 198 yards but was constantly harassed by the likes of linemen Spencer Matlock and Sherrod Stancil, and linebacker Cory Connolly.

"Getting a lot of pressure is something we emphasized," said Connolly, who had a sack and played a key role in limiting the Maroons to negative 3 yards rushing for the game. "We've got a snowball effect going on and we think we can go 6-0 (after the 0-3 start)."

Elgin coach Dave Bierman hopes a couple big rivalry games and a homecoming contest coming up will help his team to continue play hard. Friday's loss may have ended his team's playoff hopes, but the Maroons did show flashes of solid play on both sides of the ball at times.

"We tried to play more guys in the first half so that we'd have more left in the second half, but (the Warriors) are pretty big and physical up front," Bierman said. "I told the kids that now they're in the spoiler role. But we're still looking for our first victory and we have a lot of things to play for. There are still some things to fight for."