Warriors Score Often, Score Early In Win Over North Central

Neligh-Oakdale scored three times on its first five offensive plays on Thursday night as the Warriors rout North Central 55-6.

"I was real happy with the kids. I thought we got off to a good start," said Warrior coach Ron Beacom. "We talked about that being a big thing for us tonight. It was nice to be able to play all of the kids and have them all have a chance at some success."

Junior quarterback Grant White connected with classmate Chris Bentley on the first play of the Warriors' first series for a 58-yard score. Senior Garett Allemang then scored on the second play of the second series with a 70-yard run. It took just two plays on the Warriors' third possession for Pepper Marchant to score on a 13-yard run.

Beacom said he tries to have script of plays that help get the team going based upon how their opponent lines up on different locations. Even with that, Beacom said, he wasn't totally prepared for scoring so quickly.

"We want to get off to a good start and help the kids gain some confidence, so we always have a script early. But it's not usually quite to the point where you're going 60 or 70 yards at a pop," he said.

Neligh-Oakdale rushed for 301 yards and had 165 yards through the air. Allemang ran for 201 yards on just six attempts and scored on half of his touches. Tyson Belitz had two receptions for 60 yards, including a 53-yard touchdown. 

Defensively, Blake Heithoff led the Warriors with 13 tackles. Bentley added 10 more, including five solo tackles and two sacks.

The Warriors will face Niobrara-Verdigre next week, taking their 3-1 record on the road. Beacom said the Cougars seem to always be a little bigger than Neligh-Oakdale, but he anticipates seeing similar techniques to try and stop the fast-scoring Warriors.

"The flavor of the week approach to playing us right now is holding onto the ball as much as you can and to run a lot of running plays," he said. "Fortunately, if we keep executing and scoring quickly, you can't really go into a stall on your own offense because you have to find ways to get the ball in the end zone."

Scoring Summary
N-O: 58 yard pass from Grant White to Chris Bentley (Kick by Robin Hahn)
N-O: 70 yard run by Garett Allemang (Hahn Kick)
N-O: 13 yard run by Pepper Marchant (Hahn Kick)
NC: 28 yard pass from Sage Osborn to Cash Cosgrove (Pass Failed)
N-O: 53 yard pass from White to Tyson Belitz (Hahn Kick)
N-O: 49 yard run by Allemang (Hahn Kick)
N-O: 74 yard run by Allemang (Hahn Kick)
N-O: 13 yard run by White (Hahn Kick)
N-O: 3 yard run by Andrew Herley (Kick Failed)

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