Wayne lost 52-46 Thursday night against Elmore City.

It was Wayne’s largest offensive output of the season but they weren’t able to put Elmore City away down the stretch.

Senior quarterback Jaxon Dill had touchdown runs of 17 and 57 yards. He also had touchdown passes of 22 and 11 yards.

He scored a fifth touchdown in the game when he housed a kickoff return 75 yards.

The game was a back-and-forth affair with Wayne never able to slam the door on the Badgers.

“It was a weird game and went back and forth,” confirmed Wayne head coach Brandon Sharp. “We’d be up two scores, then they’d cut it to one. We never could pull away.”

Wayne, now 1-6,  had chances to pull away but didn’t capitalize.

They had a long touchdown run by Jeremiah Peterson called back.

They also had a couple of roughing the passer penalties that extended drives for Elmore, including one on a fourth and long.

“We had some self-inflicted mistakes and kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Sharp said. “We didn’t make plays when we had to and in a rivalry game you can’t make mistakes.”

Offensively, aside from Dill, Peterson scored the other rushing touchdown on a 43-yard run in the third quarter.

Max McGlory was on the receiving end of Dill’s first touchdown pass – a 22-yard connection in the second quarter.

Eli Stottlemyre caught the other touchdown pass on an 11-yard reception.

Dill finished the night with 13 carries for 159 yards and two touchdowns and he was 5-12 passing for 68 yards and two touchdowns.

Peterson had 88 yards rushing on eight carries.

As a team, Wayne had 282 yards rushing and 68 yards through the air.

“We ran the ball well,” Sharp said. “Jaxon did a good job reading and threw the ball well.”

Defensively, Wayne scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter when Sloan Jackson picked off the Elmore quarterback and returned the ball 58 yards for the score.

Jackson finished the night with four tackles as well.

Adolfo was Wayne’s leading tackler with 11 stops, followed by Peterson with 10.

Stottlemyre had three tackles and a sack and Lane Canfield had two tackles and a sack.

Rush Springs

Wayne hits the road Friday and travels to Rush Springs, now 4-3 this season.

“They’re a good football team,” Sharp said. “They’re a young team and coach (Tim) Beard does a great job with them.”

They’ll operate out of the shotgun and will throw the ball. But they want to make sure they establish their run game too.

“What keeps popping out to us on film is how hard they work,” Sharp said. “They don’t quit, play after play. No one takes a play off.”

Defensively they base out of a 4-3 and run quarters coverage in the secondary.

“They have really athletic DBs and their linebackers do a good job of run fitting,” Sharp said.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

Notes

Wayne head coach Brandon Sharp nominated Jaxon Dill for Heart of Oklahoma Offensive Player of the Week.

He nominated Jeremiah Peterson as the Heart of Oklahoma Defensive Player of the Week