FROM 5 YARDS OUT LATE IN THE GAME.
TURNOVERS DOOM WARREN CENTRAL’s HOPES; WARREN EAST EVENS RECORD AT 2-2
Warren Central High School’s head football coach, Mark Nelson, knew what he was up against in Warren East junior quarterback Dane Parsley.
Jackson McCool, however, may have been another story.
McCool, the Raiders’ 5-foot-10, 210-pound junior battering ram, scored the only points of the second half on a pleasantly cool Friday night at Warren Central, scoring on a 5-yard run with 3:50 left in the game to seal Warren East’s 22-14 victory over its crosstown rival.
It was the first time McCool had gotten all the field all season, and he certainly made the most of it.
HELP INJURED MICHAEL CLARK
BACK TO THE RAIDERS’ BENCH.
CAPITALIZED ON THEIR OPPORTUNITIES.
BY TEAMMATES JACKSON McCOOL (LEFT)
AND DANE PARSLEY AFTER THE GAME.
Warren East evened its record at 2-2, going into next weekend’s district opener at Callaway County. Warren Central dropped to 1-3, with a quick trip across town to tangle with Greenwood (3-1), a 21-13 winner over previously unbeaten Logan County in Russellville.
“It was kind of surreal,” McCool said when it was over. “I’d been out for five or six weeks with an injury, and it was my first game back … The coaches did a really good job of getting me prepared. I’m very grateful.”
McCool played primarily on defense for last year’s 12-1 Warren East squad, but he was needed at running back after senior running back Michael Clark was sidelined with an apparent knee injury in Friday night’s non-district game at Joe Hood Field.
McCool carried the ball seven times for 50 yards and the game’s only second-half touchdown.
“We had a lot of penalties, mistakes, but this is a game that should help our confidence,” Warren East first-year head coach Tanner Hall said as the Raiders left the stadium. “We want our kids to celebrate this win, but it’s the 24-hour rule … On Sunday, we start district. Callaway County.
“I told the guys, ‘You’re going to be on the bus FOREVER‘ … It’s a long way away. About three hours.”
ADDRESSES HIS TEAM AFTER THE GAME.
HIS TEAM’s DEFENSE IN THE FOURTH QUARTER.
DISTRICT PLAY NEXT WEEK
AT CALLOWAY COUNTY.
Nelson did a masterful job in erasing Warren Central’s dismal 63-game losing streak last season, his second as the Dragons’ head coach. Warren Central finished 5-6, bowing out of the KHSAA Class 4A in the first round with a lopsided defeat at Madisonville-North Hopkins.
The Dragons grabbed a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter on Friday night, and it seemed Warren Central’s team speed would loom as a problem for the visiting Raiders.
It was.
The Dragons, however, couldn’t overcome five turnovers, including a muffed punt inside the WCHS 10-yard line that led Warren East’s go-ahead points.
Warren East’s Chris Taylor pounced on the loose football at the Dragons’ 1-yard line, and Parsley took it in for his second touchdown of the night, tying the game at 14 in the final three minutes of the first half.
Both teams struggled in the kicking game, and Jackson McCool put East in front for the first time. He bolted through the middle of the WCHS defense for a two-point conversion, lifting the Raiders to a 16-14 lead.
“That’s a big win right there,” Warren East senior offensive tackle Ka’Jarius Barber said. “We had our running back (Michael Clark) go out, with an injury, and Jackson, that’s a guy we needed.
“We’ve just got to keep this thing rolling.”
WARREN EAST’s DEFENSE DELIVER A TURNOVER.
AS THE DRAGONS’ STARTING QB.
IS A TOUGH CUSTOMER ON THE GOAL LINE.
It’s been a tough month or so for Mark Nelson and his squad at Warren Central.
The Raiders are now a KHSAA Class 6A squad and they’ve had plenty of injuries, too. Warren Central opened the season with one-sided defeats at Logan County (57-14) and Franklin-Simpson (42-12). The Dragons got into the win column with last week’s 40-26 triumph over Butler County, and they were certainly in position to make it two in a row for much of the first half Friday night.
Five turnovers, and the muffed punt, got in the way.
“We didn’t handle the ball very well, had fumbles deep in our territory,” Nelson said. “The effort’s there, you can see that … We work on it, holding on to the ball, finishing drives, that kind of thing. I really like the way our offensive line opened holes.
“You can build on that.”
Ultimately, Warren East had the great equalizer in junior quarterback Dane Parsley, who does some other things for the Raiders, too.
To wit:
Parsley had a good day punting the ball, and he made several open-field tackles from his defensive position at free safety. He’ll get a break now and then on defense, yielding to teammate Braydon Lightfoot, who can play both cornerback and safety.
“Dane’s been playing most of the games, early on, and we wanted to give him more of a break in this game,” Warren East coach Tanner Hall said. “His effort … it’s unmatched. He’s a guy we’re going to lean on this year.”
DID IT ALL FOR THE RAIDERS.
KEPT WCHS IN THE GAME.
SCORES ON A 3-YARD QB DRAW.
Hall believes the Raiders’ place-kicking woes may soon be solved with a pending addition from the Warren East soccer team. It’s been tough sledding for East on offense, however, but when all else fails, Hall will put the game in Parsley’s hands.
Parsley passed for 105 yards and scored his team’s first two touchdowns on short runs in the second quarter. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound junior said the Raiders had a good week of practice in getting ready for their crosstown rival.
“We know the guys from Central. I’ve been playing against them, or with them, since we were little kids, in every sport,” Parsley said. “We struggled some tonight, too, But we executed better in the second half and didn’t turn it over.”
Warren Central took the opening kickoff and drove 65 yards in 12 plays for the game’s first touchdown.
The Dragons had a fourth-and-goal play from the East 7-yard line when junior quarterback Zarionte Howard found WCHS teammate Dakota Hunter in the left corner of the end zone for his third touchdown pass of the season.
Hunter and Howard teamed up for the two-point conversion pass, making it 8-0.
Howard scored on a 1-yard run early in the second quarter, extending the Dragons’ lead to 14-0. Warren East foiled the two-point conversion try, which proved to be a critical play in the long run.
“They have athletes, and they had confidence tonight, pretty quickly,” Warren East coach Tanner Hall said. “Chris Taylor made the big play (on the muffed punt) and he’s made a few of them this year. Maddox Tarrance, Josh Collins … we’ve had a lot of kids make significant contributions on defense.”
Warren East was successful on its first two 2-point conversion attempts, sending the Raiders to a 16-14 halftime lead. East had some anxious moments in the second half, but McCool’s 5-yard scoring run with 3:50 left in the game pretty much put the game on ice.
Warren East’s Tanner Hall coached under Mark Nelson during Nelson’s tenure at Portland (Tennessee) High School, so there was a mutual respect for both teams moving forward. The two teams met together at midfield after the game, to offer a prayer for two Warren East players who sustained major injuries in an automobile crash last month.
One of them remains hospitalized in Nashville.
“Tanner keeps his kids going, they’ve got a lot of fight in them,” Nelson said. “He’s going to win a lot of games at Warren East.”
IN A GREAT SHOW OF SPORTSMANSHIP.
THEIR RECORD AT 2-2.
THE RAIDERS’ BASEBALL COACH, AT HALFTIME.
BRING EXTRACURRICULAR HOSTILITIES
TO A QUICK CONCLUSION IN THE SECOND QUARTER.
THE HANG OF FOOTBALL SEASON …