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Stifling defense

Potent Frederick offense fails to score

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Washington’s defense pitched a shutout last Friday night and scored twice in a 40-7 district victory over the Frederick Bombers.

Frederick’s lone score came on a kickoff return.

The swarming Warrior defenders limited Frederick to eight total yards in the first half.

“We played defense as well as we have in a long time,” head coach Brad Beller said of his No. 1 ranked Warriors.

“It was an overall dominating performance by our defense,” he said.

Naithen Spaulding was the ring leader of the defense making seven tackles, all for losses. Spaulding registered three quarterback sacks and had a trio of quarterback hurries, two of which led to interceptions.

Spaulding’s first quarterback hurry came in the opening period.

“Naithen had a hold of him and he just flung it out there and Ben ran under it,” Beller said.

The result was a 33 yard touchdown to open the scoring for the Warriors.

Jaxon Hendrix, who played quarterback for the injured Major Cantrell, got the other interception for a touchdown, a pick six that went for 45 yards in the third quarter.

Beller said coaches were able to rotate a lot of players on defense.

One of those was Hudson Howard, who made four tackles, all for losses.

Beller praised the play of his secondary.

“They have given up some big plays this season but they all played unbelievably well,” the coach said.

He was speaking of Marvin Moore, Tanner Olson, Jaxon Hendrix and Cole Beller.

They, along with their defensive buddies, limited Frederick to 31 yards passing on the night.

Lending hands on the defensive side of the football were Case Taylor, Jake Coles and Jordan Kilmer all with six tackles.

Ben Vaughn was in on six tackles to go with his pick six and Marlon Moore picked off a Bomber pass.

Senior running back Cole Scott scored on runs of nine and two yards while Hendrix got into the scoring scene on a 55 yard pass to Nate Roberts.

Hendrix closed out the Washington scoring on a 31 yard scamper in the fourth quarter.

Seven first half penalties plagued the Warrior offense.

“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Beller said. “Other than that we were really efficient and had a really good half of football in the second half. We did some really good things, it just took us a while to get rolling.”

Hendrix was 9-16 throwing the pigskin for 171 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed the ball six times for 50 yards and a score.

Junior Cage Morris lit up the Bomber secondary with four grabs for 84 yards.

“He is a big time player for us,” Beller said. “He takes our offense to a whole new level when he plays like he did Friday night.”

Up next for the 4-0 Warriors are the Royals of CCS.

It’ll be a road trip with kick off set for 7 p.m. Friday.

The Royals are level at 2-2 on the season with victories over Little Axe and OCS. Their two losses have come at the hands of Crossings and Casady.

On offense the Royals will operate out of the spread formation and employ a 3-4 and try to create one-on-one match ups with Bai Jobe, the Michigan State commit.

“Because of all the movement it’s hard to double team him. If you try to run away from him he tracks you down. If you run at him he’s a very dominant player. He creates a lot of problems.”

When they are on offense they are very balanced, Beller reports.

“They have a lot of new faces on the offensive side from last year. They are a lot bigger up front and run a very balanced attack,” the coach said.

Warrior notes:

Washington Head Coach Brad Beller nominated Naithen Spaulding as the Defensive Lineman of the Week. Spaulding had seven tackles, all for losses and three quarterback hurries with two of the three leading to pick sixes.

Beller nominated Ben Vaughn as the Defensive Player of the Week. Vaughn made six tackles and returned an interception for a touchdown.

Getting the nod as the Offensive Player of the Week was Jaxon Hendrix who was 9-16 passing for 171 yards and a touchdown and rushed six times for 50 yards and a touchdown.

Nominated as the Offensive Lineman of the Week was Tanner Winlock, who graded out at 88 percent against Frederick.

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