Warriors get 2nd regional title shot
West Branch has made it back to where they were last year. Just a win away from the state final four. Instead of eventual state runner-up Ursuline standing in its way, the team that’s going to try and keep them from their first regional title since 1998 is Jefferson.
The 10-3 Falcons have clawed their way to the Division IV, Region 13 finals, taking down Poland, third-seeded Girard and Canton South to make it this far.
The top-seeded Warriors don’t plan to become the next team to fall. No matter who lines up opposite West Branch, their approach is the same. Worry about themselves and they’ll be fine.
“What we’ve kind of stressed every single week this year regardless of our opponent is that we want to get one week better,” first-year coach Tim Cooper said. “We want to worry about us. How can we improve as a team? What are some things that we can clean up from the week prior?
“I think with the weather, we’ve been fortunate enough to have some good days of practice. We’re getting a great opportunity to practice indoors (at Youngstown State) today and stay out of the cold for a day, but we’ve had a great week of practice and hopefully that preparation showcases tomorrow night.”
In last week’s regional semifinal victory over Akron Buchtel, the Warrior offense put up its second-best yardage performance of the season with 523 total offensive yards, only topped by their win over Struthers a week prior.
This game will be a battle of quarterbacks as each team boasts a dual-threat weapon. Jefferson’s Grant Hitchcock is under center for the Falcons and has also been a lethal runner and has caught two passes in gadget plays as well.
Under center for West Branch, Dru DeShields needs no introduction. In his senior campaign, the Eastern Illinois-commit has lived up to his reputation. DeShields has 46 passing touchdowns on the season and has run for an additional 13. He boasts a 131.4 quarterback rating and has amassed 4,415 total yards.
The Falcons are a little more run-heavy, so it’s going to be on the West Branch defensive line to shut things down.
“We’re a little bit different,” Cooper said. “At the beginning of the year, they were a little bit more spread, similar to us. They’ve kind of transitioned into a more of a three-back or some odd, unique formations to get their quarterback some touches in the run game a little bit more. They’re a lot more run-oriented than us. Then defensively they’re a three-man front, like a three-stack defense. We’re obviously a four-man front a majority of the time, but we will play a little three-man front and we’ll play two high or whatnot, so there’s some similarities there.”
Like every game this weekend, the conditions are going to be a factor. Last week, it was the rain. This week, it’ll be the cold.
“It’s Northeast Ohio. You want to be playing in weather like this. You want to be playing at this time of the year because that means you’re in meaningful games,” Cooper said. “Our kids are kind of embracing that. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure we stay warm. Obviously we’re going to have all of our different stuff, hand warmers and jackets and stuff for our guys in the sidelines just because we want our kids to be safe as well.
“We’ve had some good days of practice outside. We’re getting accustomed to it. It’s going to be even colder tomorrow, but I think our kids are going to come ready to play.”
Going into tonight’s contest, Cooper wants a cleaner start as compared to last week’s contest against Akron Buchtel. They overcame a rough start, but at this stage of the game, that’s not something to rely on.
“Last week we started slow,” Cooper said. “We had two turnovers, we had a couple bad snaps on punts and it almost cost us the game. We want to make sure that we clean those things up and we go back to playing turnover free West Branch football and we start creating turnovers defensively again like we have.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Niles McKinley’s Bo Rein Stadium.