WS Chronicle

The Walkertown Wolfpack showed a lot of promise in their 31-14 loss to Parkland two weeks ago.  Their goal going into last week’s game against East Wilkes was to build upon that promise.  Unfortunately for the Wolfpack, East Wilkes did not get the memo and defeated the Wolfpack by the score of 38-6 last Thursday night.

Turnovers, penalties and missed defensive assignments all contributed to the loss for the Wildcats.  It did not start bad for Walkertown as they actually scored on their first possession of the game but were held scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Even though E. Wilkes was able to run the ball effectively during the first quarter, Walkertown held strong and even forced a fumble that was run back to the 24 yard line setting them up in great field position.  Not capitalizing on that opportunity showed the youth and inexperience of this Wolfpack team.

“Just like I told my players, they [E Wilkes] worked harder than us and they were up for the game,” said Walkertown head coach Jonathan Battle.  “We are very young and some of our guys have never played football before.  They don’t do too well with a little bit of adversity and once it started raining, it poured.”

In the second quarter the flood gates started to open for the Walkertown defense.  The Cardinals misdirection read option offense kept Walkertown on their heels all afternoon.  By the time the half ended, E. Wilkes had scored 22 unanswered points.

“We just figured out where they were at and how to block it,” said Cardinal head coach JK Adkins when asked about the efficiency of his offense following the first quarter.  “Our offense looks the same from a viewers perspective but there’re a lot of wrinkles to in from a blocking standpoint and once we figured out where they liFallsup we executed better from that point on.”

The E. Wilkes run game continued to roll following intermission.  With many of their players going both ways, one would expect fatigue to play a role in the second half for the Cardinals.  It was quite the contrary as they seemed to get stronger and even seemed to wear down the Walkertown defense in the process.

“We play a lot of kids both ways and with this group being as thin as we are has to be tough,” Adkins said.  “We have to be physically tough and mentally tough because that is the only way we can get it done.”

The Wolfpack fought hard all the way until the end of the game.  Battle says the effort they showed all night was due to the hard work they put in during practice.  He thinks as the season progresses, the hard work will pay off similar to what happened toward the end of last season.

“I love the players, I love every single last one of them and they are going to have to learn that it doesn’t matter whats on the scoreboard, it only matters that we get better,” Battle continued.  “We actually think that every game is a winnable game and going off of last weeks momentum, we felt like we were going to come out here and play well.”

The Cardinals were very stout on the defensive end all day.  Adkins says it wasn’t anything they saw on film that led to their success, rather it was the effort his players gave that contributed to the win.

“The guys really executed, played sound gap control and everybody upheld their responsibility by not getting out of place,” said Adkins. 

The Cardinals have now moved to 3-0 on the season.  Adkins says his team has exceeded expectations so far this year.  He says he didn’t think they would be as solid on both sides of the ball as they have thus far.  He credits the role players for stepping up as well as they have.

For the Wolfpack, Battle said he is able to take away positives from this game due to the fact his team never quit.  He says with young players you will have some mental lapses but feels they are pointing in the right direction even though they fell to 0-3 on the year.

“All it takes for me is one, if one guy gets better that’s awesome,” he said.  “A couple of guys got better out there today. I think we left points out there on the field but you have to give it up to East Wilkes, they are a good team.  They put us in some binds we could not get out of, but the positive I can take out of that is the kids played hard and did what they were supposed to do.”By Timothy Ramsey

The Chronicle

The Walkertown Wolfpack showed a lot of promise in their 31-14 loss to Parkland two weeks ago.  Their goal going into last week’s game against East Wilkes was to build upon that promise.  Unfortunately for the Wolfpack, East Wilkes did not get the memo and defeated the Wolfpack by the score of 38-6 last Thursday night.

Turnovers, penalties and missed defensive assignments all contributed to the loss for the Wildcats.  It did not start bad for Walkertown as they actually scored on their first possession of the game but were held scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Even though E. Wilkes was able to run the ball effectively during the first quarter, Walkertown held strong and even forced a fumble that was run back to the 24 yard line setting them up in great field position.  Not capitalizing on that opportunity showed the youth and inexperience of this Wolfpack team.

“Just like I told my players, they [E Wilkes] worked harder than us and they were up for the game,” said Walkertown head coach Jonathan Battle.  “We are very young and some of our guys have never played football before.  They don’t do too well with a little bit of adversity and once it started raining, it poured.”

In the second quarter the flood gates started to open for the Walkertown defense.  The Cardinals misdirection read option offense kept Walkertown on their heels all afternoon.  By the time the half ended, E. Wilkes had scored 22 unanswered points.

“We just figured out where they were at and how to block it,” said Cardinal head coach JK Adkins when asked about the efficiency of his offense following the first quarter.  “Our offense looks the same from a viewers perspective but there’re a lot of wrinkles to in from a blocking standpoint and once we figured out where they liFallsup we executed better from that point on.”

The E. Wilkes run game continued to roll following intermission.  With many of their players going both ways, one would expect fatigue to play a role in the second half for the Cardinals.  It was quite the contrary as they seemed to get stronger and even seemed to wear down the Walkertown defense in the process.

“We play a lot of kids both ways and with this group being as thin as we are has to be tough,” Adkins said.  “We have to be physically tough and mentally tough because that is the only way we can get it done.”

The Wolfpack fought hard all the way until the end of the game.  Battle says the effort they showed all night was due to the hard work they put in during practice.  He thinks as the season progresses, the hard work will pay off similar to what happened toward the end of last season.

“I love the players, I love every single last one of them and they are going to have to learn that it doesn’t matter whats on the scoreboard, it only matters that we get better,” Battle continued.  “We actually think that every game is a winnable game and going off of last weeks momentum, we felt like we were going to come out here and play well.”

The Cardinals were very stout on the defensive end all day.  Adkins says it wasn’t anything they saw on film that led to their success, rather it was the effort his players gave that contributed to the win.

“The guys really executed, played sound gap control and everybody upheld their responsibility by not getting out of place,” said Adkins. 

The Cardinals have now moved to 3-0 on the season.  Adkins says his team has exceeded expectations so far this year.  He says he didn’t think they would be as solid on both sides of the ball as they have thus far.  He credits the role players for stepping up as well as they have.

For the Wolfpack, Battle said he is able to take away positives from this game due to the fact his team never quit.  He says with young players you will have some mental lapses but feels they are pointing in the right direction even though they fell to 0-3 on the year.

“All it takes for me is one, if one guy gets better that’s awesome,” he said.  “A couple of guys got better out there today. I think we left points out there on the field but you have to give it up to East Wilkes, they are a good team.  They put us in some binds we could not get out of, but the positive I can take out of that is the kids played hard and did what they were supposed to do.”