The Weatherford Kanga-roos look to head into this week as favorites when they host Granbury on Friday, Oct. 16.
The Roos are coming off two straight wins and are 2-1 in District 3-6A. The Pirates are 0-3 with two losses by multiple scores and have given up 41 points or more in each of the games.
Despite that, Weatherford coach Marshall Williams is trying to be the bad guy so his team does not underestimate a Granbury opponent that could test Weatherford in certain ways.
“If you are going to be a football team that wants to play to the level of the opponent or listens to the outside noise, I don’t even know why we are even practicing,” Williams said. “It is not about about who we are playing, it is about what we are doing and how we continue to improve week-in and week-out.”
Granbury runs a shotgun spread, up-tempo offense, similar to Weatherford. The Pirates are most successful running the ball with their running back Spencer Taylor (703 yards, 6 touchdowns) and quarterback Caleb Johnson (449 yards, 10 touchdowns).
Johnson has thrown the ball enough (752 yards, 6 touchdowns, 3 interceptions) to keep defenses on their toes. He has four players who have caught at least 10 passes for more than 100 yards this season, but none has separated themselves enough to be explosive game-breakers in the passing game.
“Their offensive line is enormous,” Williams said. “They are going to look similar to us and what we do offensively, which is good for our defense because they see it every day.”
The Pirates line up in a 3-3 stack defense with an extra safety on the field. Williams expects a lot of soft zone coverage to help limit big plays in the passing game which means the path forward is clear for his team.
“They are going to force you to run the football,” Williams said. “They don’t want to give up deep passes and have a bunch of big plays. If you are going to score, they want you to do it with 10 plays or more. Less is more this week. I don’t know if the playbook has been as small all year.”
The one-two punch for Weatherford of running back D.J. Quimby (694 yards, 8 touchdowns) and quarterback Braelyn Jones (248 yards, 6 touchdowns) means the Roos will gladly take the extra space up front if invited to run.
“I believe our offensive line has been getting better every week,” Williams said. “We have No. 0 (Quimby) back there and running the ball like he does where he gets stronger throughout the game, I am looking to him to have a big week.”
Passing-wise, the last two wins have seen Jones spread the ball around more to receivers Reed Tidwell, Parker Clark and Eli Garrett while Jakob Hemphill has remained the versatile, explosive playmaker.
“We don’t fear anyone and we respect everybody,” Williams said. “I don’t feel like we have done enough to feel like we can get off the bus and say we are Weatherford and expect a team to lay down for us. We haven’t done anything to deserve that nor would I promote that.”
Weatherford 0 14 7 14 - 35
Lamar 0 0 21 7 - 28
SCORING SUMMARY:
Second Quarter
W-Clark 18 pass from Jones (Marino kick), 3:03
W-Tidwell 40 pass from Jones (Marino kick), :56
Third Quarter
L- Howard 45 run (Kick good), 10:02
L-Howard 8 run (Kick good), 6:32
L-Howard 51 run (Kick good), 3:32
W-Hemphill 69 pass from Jones (Marino kick), 3:16
Fourth Quarter
L-Onan 33 pass from Williams (Kick good), 10:20
W-Jones 50 run (Marino kick), 9:41
W-Quimby 37 run (Marino kick), 3:08
Individual Stats
RUSHING – Weatherford, D. Quimby 22-136-1, B. Jones 9-63-1. Lamar, T. Thomas 21-163, Z. Howard 4-127-3, B. Williams 5-7.
PASSING – Weatherford, B. Jones 16-23-3-1-234. Lamar, B. Williams 24-32-1-0-218.
RECEIVING – Weatherford, J. Hemphill 10-126-1, R. Tidwell 2-66-1, P. Clark 2-43-1, D. Quimby 1-1, A. Moore, 1(-2). Lamar, Z. Ward 11-104, K. Onan 4-65-1, T. Rollins 6-46, S. Thurston 1-15, Z. Howard 2-3.
SPECIAL TEAMS – Weatherford, J. Marino 5-5 XP, B. Jones 5 punts-221.
DEFENSE – Weatherford, L. Hall 16 tck, 1 PD, 1 FF, C. Goff 13 tck, C. Parker 6 tck, 1 FR, C. Peterson 6 tck, 1 FR, A. Feriend 6 tck, 2 TFL, 1 FF, L. Blount 6 tck, C. Rodriguez 5 tck, S. Garcia 5 tck, A. Arevalo 4 tck, N. Soto 3 tck, 1 hurry, Q. Martinez 3 tck, 1 TFL, 1 FF, 1 block kick, K. Wakeland 2 tck, K. Redditt 2 tck, 2 hurries, K. Hampton 2 tck, 1 PD, J. Bryan 1 tck, M. Neal 1 tck, X. Olivares 1 tck, C. Schrantz 1 tck, C. Pope 1 tck.
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