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If the Diamond Wildcats’ defense plays the way it did Friday at the jamboree in Liberal, they won’t need to score many points to achieve their goal of making the playoffs.
But, if their offense scores as often as they did Friday, their defense will have some margin for error.
Diamond took on Liberal, Jasper and Sarcoxie at the jamboree on Friday. The varsity squad only allowed one touchdown while scoring eight of their own.
They started the night on defense against the host, Liberal. After a long run by Liberal on the first play, the Bulldogs scored the first touchdown of the night. After that, Diamond clamped down and didn’t allow so much as another first down the rest of the way against Liberal. Linebacker Zach Renfro highlighted the defensive effort when he flew into the backfield and blew up an option play for an eight-yard loss.
When the offense took the field, the fireworks got started.
The Wildcats threw three touchdown passes and ran for another. Senior signal caller Tyler Horton found Jarren Rinehart twice on passes of 30 and 20 yards respectively for scores and sophomore Brodie Bien hooked up with Renfro on a short two-yard score.
Dylan Welch put the finishing touches on the onslaught with a three-yard dive play for a score.
“It’s real big, but we try to take it for what it is. In the jamboree people stay pretty vanilla and they don’t show a lot of things,” Diamond coach Aaron Davied said. “We were obviously very happy to come out and have a good showing. But, the main thing we were pleased with was that we wanted our kids to come out and play hard and I felt like we did that. It’s always nice to lay it to a team that you will see later on.”
Next up, Diamond faced off with the Jasper Eagles.
Renfro once again set the tone for the defense with an interception and Rinehart smashed the
quarterback on a keeper play as the Wildcats didn’t allow a score.
“We were very bend but don’t break on that series,” Davied said. “We gave up some yards but we didn’t give (Jasper) the yards when they really needed them.”
When the Diamond offense returned to the field, the fireworks resumed with four more touchdowns. Rinehart caught two more touchdown passes, one each from Horton and Bien, and each quarterback scored on an option keeper for the Wildcats.
If the Diamond Wildcats’ defense plays the way it did Friday at the jamboree in Liberal, they won’t need to score many points to achieve their goal of making the playoffs.
But, if their offense scores as often as they did Friday, their defense will have some margin for error.
Diamond took on Liberal, Jasper and Sarcoxie at the jamboree on Friday. The varsity squad only allowed one touchdown while scoring eight of their own.
They started the night on defense against the host, Liberal. After a long run by Liberal on the first play, the Bulldogs scored the first touchdown of the night. After that, Diamond clamped down and didn’t allow so much as another first down the rest of the way against Liberal. Linebacker Zach Renfro highlighted the defensive effort when he flew into the backfield and blew up an option play for an eight-yard loss.
When the offense took the field, the fireworks got started.
The Wildcats threw three touchdown passes and ran for another. Senior signal caller Tyler Horton found Jarren Rinehart twice on passes of 30 and 20 yards respectively for scores and sophomore Brodie Bien hooked up with Renfro on a short two-yard score.
Dylan Welch put the finishing touches on the onslaught with a three-yard dive play for a score.
“It’s real big, but we try to take it for what it is. In the jamboree people stay pretty vanilla and they don’t show a lot of things,” Diamond coach Aaron Davied said. “We were obviously very happy to come out and have a good showing. But, the main thing we were pleased with was that we wanted our kids to come out and play hard and I felt like we did that. It’s always nice to lay it to a team that you will see later on.”
Next up, Diamond faced off with the Jasper Eagles.
Renfro once again set the tone for the defense with an interception and Rinehart smashed the
quarterback on a keeper play as the Wildcats didn’t allow a score.
“We were very bend but don’t break on that series,” Davied said. “We gave up some yards but we didn’t give (Jasper) the yards when they really needed them.”
When the Diamond offense returned to the field, the fireworks resumed with four more touchdowns. Rinehart caught two more touchdown passes, one each from Horton and Bien, and each quarterback scored on an option keeper for the Wildcats.
“We played very well against Jasper, especially on offense. We were really clicking. It seemed like we didn’t have a negative play against them,” Davied said. “We ran a lot of our base run plays that would gain five to seven yards and then we would break open a big pass or an option play. On defense, we gave up some four or five yard runs. But overall, the kids were in the right spots and made plays when they needed to.”
In the final scrimmage against Sarcoxie, both squads let the junior varsity players who made the trip have the fun.
Freshman fullback Tanner Paradise scored on a short run for Diamond.
“This definitely gives us some good confidence going into week one. We try to tell our kids all the time not to get complacent because this doesn’t mean anything, it’s not a real game,” Davied said. “We think it’s great for our confidence, but last year we had a good showing in the jamboree also. Injuries and things like that can really turn things around. We told our kids, we need to come out and work to improve every day. We can’t be satisfied with where we are right now.”
