The Wakefield Trojan football team took a christening win over the Bancoft-Rosalie Panthers at Gardner Stadium on the field’s first contest, which also doubled as the stadium’s dedication.
The game began with Wakefiled Cub Scout Pack 172 raising the flag they donated to fly over the new field.
During halftime of the game Morgan Driskell, Megan Weaver, and Tim and Leslie Bebee were presented with plaques honoring their contributions to making the field a reality. The plaques will be mounted on the entrance to the field once its completed.
Halftime also saw the announcement of Wakefields Homecoming King and Queen for 2022, Cade Johnson and Alex Arenas. They were crowned earlier in the day at the Homecoming event the school arranged on Main Street to go with the annual Homecoming parade.
The Trojans hosted the Panthers, winning decidedly, with a 76-44 final score after the final whistle.
“It was just a monumental night for Trojan Football. The atmosphere was electric,” said Coach Mike Hassler. “I felt like the boys knew the importance of the opening of the new stadium and came out and put up a performance worthy of such a special night. With it also being homecoming week and so many other things going on it could have been real easy to come into this game distracted. I thought the guys were dialed in come kick-off, definitely proud of the way we performed.”
The Wakefield team jumped out to an early first-quarter lead, 14-0, and added another 14 to their total by the halftime break to lead the game 28-6. In the third the Panthers added another eight, but it would be their last score, as the Trojans piled on with another 18 before the final quarter ended.
“Definitely made some big strides from week one to week two. Our focus was to get more balance in our run game, and I think we accomplished that with two runners going over 170 yards,” said Hassler. “We didn’t turn the ball over and ran for over 400 yards as a team, the only thing I’d critique is that I’d like to see us get our passing game going. We really didn’t need it against B-R, but I feel like we are going to need to call on it down the road.”
Scoring for the Trojans were Cade Johnson with a touchdown and two-point conversion; Mason Lamprecht with a conversion by Tim Kaufman; Tim Kaufman touchdown with conversion; Kaufman touchdown with two-points by Cade Johnson; Cade Johnson touchdown with two-points from Lamprecht; Cade Johnson touchdown with pass to Hunter Schultz no good and a touchdown for Sam Chase with conversion pass to Jacob Borg, no good..
The Trojans put up near double the Panther’s offense, with 428 yards to the visiting team’s 245, though the teams both took near-equal tries with plays. The Trojans made 7.4 yards per play with 427 of their yards coming from rushing.
The Panthers gave up two turnovers – one fumble and one interception.
“Much improved performance this week. Right off the bat I thought we were more assignment sound. We preached all week to do your job and I think the boys made a real effort to work as a unit instead of eight individuals. Technique wise there are still a lot of things we can clean up and that will come with more practice and game reps,” said Hassler.
Leading Tacklers were Cade Johnson (7 solo/1 assist/INT); Anthony Valenzuela (4 solo/4 assisted/Pass Break Up); Caleb Chase (5 solo/2 assist/Fumble Recovery/Tackle for a Loss); Issac Walsh (4 solo/1 assist/Sack/Tackle for a Loss).
“Pender will definitely be the most athletic team we face this season. They have real good speed at their skills positions and a veteran quarterback. As we do week to week we’ll focus on us and fixing the things we have control over. We get to come back out and play on the turf at home again, we’ll definitely be ready to roll,” said Hassler.
The Trojans will double-up with another home game this week, against the visiting Pender Pendragons on Friday, Sept. 9 at Gardner Stadium. Both teams are entering the contest at 1-1 on the season.