Timberwolves Beat Tigers to Clinch District Title

The South Central football team has pretty much wrapped up the District 7 title after beating St. John-Hudson 54-8 on the road last Friday.

Head coach Brett Westrup said the game went pretty much as expected. The Tigers are 0-7 this season, but what Westrup liked was that the Timberwolves executed well and didn’t look past the Tigers.

He attributed that to the Timberwolves having a good week of practice this past week.

“It’s easy to get complacent, it’s easy to get just kind of going through the motions — not so much in the game but more so in practice, knowing that whoever you play on Friday, you’re just gonna blow out of the water, right?” Westrup said. “Like well, we can just screw around, we don’t need to practice hard.

“So we’ve kind of changed practice up a little bit, did a little bit more individual drills, did a lot more work on two-minute drills, because you know, the two-minute drill, if you don’t practice a two-minute drill and you have to have a two-minute offense, that can’t get really difficult in a game situation, because you’re already strapped for time.”

Thus, the Timberwolves have run a two-minute drill in practice on Tuesdays. Westrup said he plans to do that again this week.

Another aspect they have focused on is extra-point plays. Westrup said, in the bigger games, successful extra points can make a difference.

“We’ve got to work on the little things, which are the two-minute drills, getting ready for the situations,” he said. “You’ve got to prepare for the situations that might happen even though they’re not going to happen (in a particular game).”

Against the Tigers, the Timberwolves got an interception return for 29 yards from Colt Yoder to start the scoring. Jack Willems followed with a defensive fumble recovery that he returned 10 yards for a touchdown.

Easton Huck then ran for six yards for the first SCHS offensive touchdown of the game. The defense then came through again as Yoder had his second interception, which he returned five yards for a touchdown.

By that point, Westrup put his younger players into the game. Tyree Ellis took over as quarterback and he completed an 8-yard pass to Ryder Woolfolk for a touchdown to round out the first quarter scoring. SCHS led 40-0 at that point.

In the second quarter, Ellis found Woolfolk again, this time for a 5-yard touchdown pass, then Ellis ran for a 14-yard touchdown to round out the Timberwolves’ scoring. St. John-Hudson scored a touchdown before the game ended at halftime on the mercy rule.

Westrup said it was good to get some of the sophomores and freshmen into the game last Friday.

“We played a couple of JV games this year, not a whole lot,” he said. “We’ve actually had more canceled than we’ve actually played but it’s nice — it’s different playing in a JV game than it is in a varsity game.”

He noted that there are more people attending a varsity game, plus the younger players get to see an opposing varsity team.

“It’s not just JV guys, so it’s a little bit more of a pressure situation,” Westrup said. “It was good to get those kids out there put them in kind of some situations that showed them a little bit of weakness. 

“We got to work here and then be like, hey, you know, we look really good in this area. So it was fun to get those kids out in that situation.”

The Timberwolves have already claimed victories over Kiowa County and Central Plains, the only other teams in District 7 with winning records. SCHS (7-0) still has a district game remaining at home this Friday against Spearville, who is 2-5 and coming off a 46-0 loss to Kiowa County.

Westrup said the intent is to use Friday’s game to continue to improve in areas that the Timberwolves may be weakest. He said he plans to run some different formations that the players have been practicing, though those are formations they haven’t used in a game situation yet. That way, the head coach said, the Timberwolves get to put those plays at “game-like speed” and see how they fare and whether they can be incorporated in playoff games.

One thing Westrup noted is that, the past two games, the Timberwolves have been outsized and faced teams with bigger players.

“They’re a lot bigger than us,” Westrup said regarding Spearville. “They’re not as athletic as us, but when we’re on offense and they’re on defense, you can tell that they’re just gonna try to bring the house.

“They’re gonna bring pressure to try to get your quarterback to either make a bad pass or get some pressure and be able to get a sack or maybe try to get a turnover.”

He said it will be good to face a team like that, because it will give the Timberwolves a chance to see how they handle pressure like that.

“They’re gonna run a 4-2 (defense),” Westrup said. “You don’t see a lot of four-man fronts in eight-man football, but they are gonna run a 4-2, which is no different than running a 3-3 stack or something like that.”

“That’ll be good to see a different defensive front to see how we’re gonna handle that and handle the pressure.”

While the Timberwolves have clinched the district and a home playoff game, Westrup said the focus continues to be on dominating every play and not focusing on who they play next week or their chances of winning a State title. He noted that, from this point forward, it’s win or go home.

“That being said, our ultimate goal is to make a deep playoff run and to be able to make a deep playoff run you do have to win districts,” Westrup said. “To be able to win districts, to make a deep playoff run, it’s pretty important to stay at home And you have to win districts to be able to be able to stay at home.

“So that was nice to be able to get that district out of wrapped up. So we are for sure gonna be playing at home week one (of the playoffs), and if we win week one, we will definitely be a home week, too, so that’s nice.”

But the head coach said that, now, the players can focus on getting better with each game and play their best football.