GASTON - The Friday night lights have been dark since November, but the switch has been flipped and the long-awaited return of high school football has finally arrived. 

As the small-town fans filled the bleachers to once again watch their hometown teams kick off the new season, it was the Wes-Del Warriors hitting the gridiron against the Alexandria Tigers on Friday evening.  At the end of the night, it was the Tigers pulling out the opening week victory 41-12.

Once toe met leather, it was Wes-Del gaining the opening possession. The Tigers attempted to catch the Warriors by surprise to open the game with an onside kick, but Wes-Del was able to recover fairly easily.

The Warriors opening drive began in opposing territory. Despite the good field position the Warriors were unable to move the ball much farther and were forced to punt in their opening possession.

“A couple of times we called a play and had ten guys running one play and one guy running another,” Wes-Del head coach Matt Nuckols said. “We’ve got to have all eleven guys doing the right thing.”

The red and gold’s opening drive went in complete opposition to the maroon and gray. Alexandria opened up the playbook early and found a great deal of success on the ground with a wide array of run plays. 

The success the Tigers found on the ground led to an early score, giving Alexandria a 7-0 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter was where the game began to shift. With the Warriors opening the quarter in prime scoring position just outside the redzone, sophomore quarterback Kameren Vonderschmitt threw an interception, stopping the Warriors’ momentum as Alexandria freshman corner Bryan Rowland returned it for a touchdown. 

Not much changed in the following possession for the maroon and gray as Vonderschmitt threw a second straight interception leading to another score from Alexandria to take a 21-0 lead.

“With the first one it was definitely a bad decision,” Vonderschmitt said. “I did not know what I was doing, I just threw it. Then the second one I was out of it mentally, I was out of it and just threw it. So that’s on me.”

After the interceptions, Wes-Del turned back to its bread and butter on their next possession and found much more success on the ground than in the air. 

The Warriors were able to drive down the field with ease, every single play being a run and were able to punch in their first score of the game on a eight-yard run from sophomore Rhyker Mauck to bring the score to 21-6.

“It’s all about our toughness and tonight I thought we had it,” Nuckols said. “I thought we moved the ball well when we were doing our stuff and stopped the run game, but it was just mental.”

Alexandria added another touchdown before halftime to push their lead back to twenty one points at 28-6.

“The biggest thing tonight was our mental mistakes,” Nuckols said. “Too many mistakes on offense, we’d get a big drive and then turn the ball over, or a holding or some penalty. It’s just too much of that is happening right now.”

The second half did not look much different for the maroon and gray. Alexandria was able to march down the field with ease against the Warrior defense adding two more touchdowns in the third quarter to take a lead of 41-6.

During the second half, Wes-Del senior Grayson Mealy was asked to take on more duties than normal. Mealy was getting reps at linebacker, running back and lineman. The do-it-all senior just wants to contribute in any way he can help the team get better.

“It doesn’t take much of a toll on me because I know I’m contributing in every way I can for the team,” Mealy said. 

With the clock ticking down to the last seconds, the game was all but over. But the Warriors would put up one more score before the final horn to make the score 41-12. 

The outcome was not what the Warriors wanted, but there are growing pains with some of the youth on the team, according to Nuckols. 

“Vonderschmitt is only a sophomore,” he said. “He’s young and only got a little bit of experience last year. This was his first time against a real varsity team. So he’s going to continue to get better.”

Wes-Del will travel to Tri-Central for their next contest August 30 to take on the Trojans at 7 p.m. 

Contact David Moore with comments at david.moore@bsu.edu or on X @gingninj63

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