Kiefer’s explosive offense showed a brief spark on its opening drive last Friday night at Reed Field when the Trojans broke a 47-yard play that set up an opening field goal.

After that Washington’s defense slammed the door on the Trojans limiting them to a total offense of 110 yards while Washington was rolling to 358 on the ground and through the air on their way to a 36-3 thrashing in the State 2A-1 quarterfinals.

The victory sealed Washington’s ticket to the semifinals against Oklahoma Christian School of Edmond tentatively set for 7 p.m. December 5 at a neutral site.

“Outside of their first drive when they had a 47-yard play, our defense played unbelievably well,” head coach Brad Beller said.

Kiefer had to settle for a field goal and that was the extent of their scoring.

For the remainder of the game, Washington’s defense surrendered a grand total of 63 yards the rest of the contest.

“To shut down a team like that in the quarterfinals shows how prepared they were,” Beller said.

As he has for the past several weeks, junior Case Alexander led the defense in tackling with an even dozen stops on Trojan ball carriers.

Dawson Thomas played a whale of a game registering six tackles, forcing a fumble, made an interception and broke up a pair of Kiefer pass attempts.

Kinser Scott and Hunter Sanders both finished with five tackles while Blake Heiliger finished with four stops.

“Dawson did a great job of stopping the run and the pass,” Beller said. “Kinser Scott did a great job of coming up from the secondary making plays. The unsung hero of the defense is Lane Taylor. He was only credited with three tackles but he fought off double and triple teams all night allowing Case Alexander to have a big night (at linebacker).

“Ricky Ramirez from his defensive end position carried a heavy load in their option offense. He had three tackles but by doing his job holding up blocks, he was a key to our defensive success.”

On the other side of the ball, the head coach was impressed with the consistency of his offensive unit.

“I was really impressed with their consistency,” he confirmed. “We were 8-9 passing in the first half for 101 yards. We were a little beat up the other night so we let our offensive line rake over. We took the air out of the ball and ran it. We let our run-game take over.”

Toting the mail for the Warriors was sophomore running back Josiah Dickerson.

Dickerson finished the game with 21 carries for 142 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“He only had nine carries in the first half but had 12 more in the second half closing out the game for us in the second half,” Beller said. “He took over at the end of the game.”

Javen Hall finished with 68 rushing yards on 14 carries and a pair of touchdowns.

“Creed Barrett did exactly what he was asked,” Beller said of his sophomore signal caller.

“The way he runs the offense reminds me a lot of the way Major Cantrell ran it. He is very efficient. Six different people caught the ball. That’s when our offense is the most difficult to contain. He makes all the right reads, finding the receiver that is open. He just plays good, solid football.

“Our offensive line does a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage allowing us to run the football and give us time to throw.

Beller was bragging on the stellar play of Tripp Wilson, Evan Painter, Kingston Stringer, Gunnar Baker and Sam Cantrell along with Chance Phillips.

“Chance is a good offensive lineman for us,” Beller noted.

Warrior notes:

Watch next week’s Purcell Register for more breakdown of the OCS Saints. Kick off is tentatively set for 7 p.m. next Friday, December 5 at a site yet to be determined. The winner will advance to the State Class 2A-1 Finals.