“The obvious part of the defense was the three turnovers we forced on the night, and we could have had at least one more; we should have had one more,” stated Defensive Coordinator George Villa. “We let one potential fumble recovery get away from us on a Kennedy option play in which the ball wound up on the grass.”
Jayce Hackebeil and Joey Seguin III each recovered a fumble and Donavon Camacho had an interception after playing great defense on the play. Isaiah Oropeza and Aaron Rivera forced one fumble each.
Villa continued, “The one thing that I was most proud of was our effort as a whole. I preach to our kids every day that coaches should not have to coach effort. I believe they have bought in to that notion. Obviously, we are a long way away from where I would like us to be defensively, but we are definitely headed in the right direction.”
Head Coach Paul Gomez also heaped praise on Villa’s defensive unit, “Coach Villa had a good plan going in and the guys played hard. Creating turnovers and keeping them from scoring in the first half was impressive. The plays by Isaiah, Joey, Donavon, and Aaron were big for our defense.
Although we had too many missed tackles and missed assignments during the second half, we contribute that to being a little fatigued and a little weak minded. We had players in the right spots to make plays but we just did not make them so we cannot attribute that to our scheme.”
Needless to say, having well-conditioned players is paramount to Class 4A teams and below. Class 5A and 6A teams on the Warhorse’s schedule have the luxury to have players that only play offense and another set of players that only play defense. Heck, for the most part in bigger programs, there is even another eleven that only play special teams.
“We play ironman football in Devine,” commented Gomez. “Our players play both sides of the ball. Conditioning plays a huge roll for us. Overall, I think it was a step in the right direction; we have to keep getting better. There is much room for improvement on both sides of the ball. We will work to achieve that goal every week.”
By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Warhorse defense a turnover machine in season opener
