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High School Sports

September 19, 2008

Velma-Alma to host Waurika

Michael Pineda

Waurika moved into an area last week that Velma-Alma has been a long resident of — the win column.

The Eagles defeated Healdton 20-8 to break a 12-game losing streak. Now, for an encore, Waurika will look for its second win of the season when it takes on the No. 3-ranked Comets tonight.

“It’s always nice to win but we have business this week,” Waurika coach Larry VanBeber said. “We enjoyed it right up to the time we started watching film on Velma.”

The Comets enter the game 2-0 and will celebrate their homecoming. Velma-Alma opened the season with an overtime victory over Comanche and followed up with a 40-7 demolition of Elmore City-Pernell.

The Comets received strong rushing performances from Tanner Jenkins and Trenten Files and made it through the game without committing a turnover or penalty. But there is still room for improvement, particularly on the offensive line, an area that Velma-Alma coach Greg Gothard was not pleased with following the game.

“We made some adjustments at halftime and as long as they were in that defense we were OK,” Gothard said. “Recognition will be the key for the line.

“We haven’t mastered what we do. We just need to continue and improve on what we are doing but we were pretty much on track.”

For the second week in a row, Velma-Alma will be lining up against the Wing-T, but there is a difference in the way the Badgers and Eagles approach things.

“It’s different, Elmore City tried to attack on the wing and Waurika is more spread out and attacks all over,” Gothard said.

“It looks to me that they are trying to do things right and they are playing with a lot of intensity. The excitement is back among the players and coach Vanbeber is going to run a tight ship and do things right.”

The excitement generated by Waurika’s win has been parleyed into practice, which has been upbeat and physical as the Eagles prepare to meet the annual

challenge that Velma-Alma gives, a hard nosed football game.

Entering the Velma-Alma game, VanBeber feels that his team has had its best practices of the year, proving that there is no substitute for winning.

“We’ve done a lot of hitting, trying to prepare for what they do,” Vanbeber said. “We expect the game to be physical and hope we can keep up with it. We have had the three best practices since we started this fall and there is a bounce in their step.

“It’s always good to play the good guys. They test you as a coaching staff and as a team. We’re just ready to play.”

The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Velma.

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