Nevada Tigers fall to Warrensburg 26-9 in football season opener

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The wait is finally over. The day many area fans have waited nearly a year for came on a sunny Friday evening at Tiger stadium as the Nevada Tigers opened the 2010 football season against the Tigers of Warrensburg.

Both squads are in the process of rebuilding and by many accounts, are making strides in the right direction. Warrensburg, under first-year head coach Scott Grinde, came into the night looking to recover from a tough season in which they finished just 3-7 last year in one of their toughest year's in recent memory, but team officials said they do have all the right pieces in place to make their first playoff run since 2001.

Head coach Jay Fleeman's Nevada Tigers, on the other hand, came into this season off a 3-7 finish of their own, but that finish was Nevada's best in four years and Fleeman and his staff came into the year with a substantial measure of confidence that the program is headed in the right direction. Though the Tigers were able to do a few things right on the night as Warrensburg took the victory by a final score of 26-9.

Warrensburg needed just two plays from scrimmage to put some doubt into the minds of Nevada coaches, players and fans. After seeing their running game get stuffed, the Tigers and quarterback Layton Moore took to the air and was able to complete a swing pass to the outside to Alex Kostas, who was able to turn what was designed to be a short pass to simply gain back lost yardage into an 81-yard touchdown catch and run to make it 6-0 after just 1 minute, 4 seconds.

"Up front, I think we did a pretty good job. I think we held our own. I think the offensive line played decent, I think the defensive line played decent. But, you know, the offensive line could have done a better job of blocking," Fleeman said. "The linebackers and the defensive linemen missed some tackles, so it's really hard to find that one thing that we excelled at tonight that we couldn't get better at."

The Tigers of Warrensburg had two more opportunities to extend that lead in the first quarter, but costly holding calls put an end to two strong drives. But, with 1:54 to go in the opening period, senior Gibson Larkin created the first turnover of the game as he handed Nevada quarterback Johnathan Klingaman his first interception of the year and returned it 39 yards for a touchdown to make it 13-0.

Moore took it upon himself to complete Warrensburg's third big play of the game as he took a 49-yard scamper up the sideline and into the end zone to take a 20-point lead with 2:56 to go in the half. That was the end of the offense for the first half and Fleeman's Tigers found themselves heading into the locker room into a 20-0 hole at the break.

Warrensburg wasted little time picking up where they left off as they shut the Tigers' offense down on their opening drive and quickly turned around and mounted a strong opening drive of its own that was capped off by a 13-yard touchdown pass from Moore to James Lafernier to extend the advantage to 26-0 at the midpoint of the third quarter.

Turnovers proved to be a major course of issue for the Tigers in the opening half. Most of the opportunities that Warrensburg did -- and in some cases, didn't -- take advantage of to open up the game were provided them by a substantial amount of trouble holding onto the football by the Nevada offense that resulted in five turnovers in the game, three of which came in the opening half.

"It would be one thing if we just lined up and got physically whooped, and it wasn't," Fleeman said. "We saw guys tonight make mistakes that is not like them."

As the third quarter neared it's end, Warrensburg had thoughts of a shutout, but Klingaman and his offense had other ideas. After Warrensburg's first turnover of the night, the Tigers were able to mount a seven play, 24-yard drive that was capped off by a 6-yard touchdown pass to Kyle "Bubba" Banes to make it 26-7 with 26 seconds left in the third quarter.

"We struggled all through the first half. For two and a half quarters, we did not play like we know our guys to play," Fleeman said. And it wasn't a physical thing, it was a mental.

Trent Yarsulick continued what was already a strong defensive night on the second play of the fourth quarter as he was able to take down Moore for his second sack of the night.

This time, however, the sack came in the back of the end zone, resulting in a safety and shortening the deficit to 17 at 26-9.

Though the final 8 minutes of the game were played without a scoreboard, the two squads played on undeterred while officials kept the official time on the field. Neither team was able to mount any more offense throughout the game and Warrensburg held on to open the season with a 26-9 victory.

With the loss, Fleeman's Tigers opened the season with an 0-1 record and will be on the road once again next week as they take on the Indians of Seneca High School, who held the eighth spot on the Associated Press preseason prep football poll. The Tigers will make their first appearance at Logan Field in Nevada on Sept. 10, when they host the East Newton Patriots.