Vikings drop second straight, look to rivalry game with Bees next

WAUSA – After a 4-0 start, the sky was the limit for the Wausa football team, but that narrative has changed slightly as summer has turned to fall.

The Vikings dropped their second straight game, this time at home on Sept. 30 against rival Wynot, losing 47-6 to the now 5-1 Blue Devils.

Now Wausa heads into a key road contest with another rival, the 6-0 Bloomfield Bees, at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 with state playoff seeding on the brain.

'We just didn’t do what was needed to win a game like this: Only producing 159 yards of offense isn’t going to result in too many wins,' Vikings head coach Adrian Alonzo said.

'We carried out the game plan in the first quarter with the exception of a timely turnover that killed a drive where we were having success,' he said. 'Allowing only seven points in the first quarter was huge, but giving up 25 unanswered in the second quarter was the determining factor.

'Our lack of discipline continues to hurt us in more ways than one; we can’t win football games with nine penalties for almost a hundred yards,' he said.

'We have to find a way to come together as a team for these last two regular-season games; we will find a way.'

To go to Bloomfield riding two straight losses isn’t helpful for Wausa, but the game should still be exciting.

'Anytime Wausa and Bloomfield play in any contest, it’s a big deal,' Alonzo said. 'We need to have a great week of focused practice in order for us to give ourselves a chance to compete against a really good team.

'Athletically, we match up,' he said. 'It’s the mental focus that will have to be there. Every game we play from here on out is important, not just for a playoff spot, but for our program.

“This team is fully capable of doing special things,' he said. 'We just need to find a way to come together and find a rhythm.'

The state playoffs are only a few weeks away, but Alonzo admitted where Wausa winds up on the big board is still up in the air.

'Right now, we need to focus on one game at a time and let the chips fall where they may,' he said.

Wausa senior Jaxon Claussen noted the team continued to struggle in the trenches for a second straight week.

'I thought us losing to Osmond would have lit a fire, but after that first quarter, people started taking breaks,' he said.

'We weren’t getting the right blocks. We talked about blocking the blitzing linebackers and our line didn’t do what it was supposed to do.'

Claussen bemoaned the loss to the now 3-3 Tigers and said the Bloomfield game is a huge test to see whether the Vikings can make a run at a higher seed in the state playoffs.

'Losing against Osmond, that killed us,' he said. 'A 6-2 record is a home game. Bloomfield is going to be tough and a lot of us are banged up.'