It didn’t come easy, but the West Texas Warbirds were able to maintain their undefeated record with a 52-38 win over the North Texas Bulls Saturday at the Ector County Coliseum.
The matchup was tightly contested until the fourth quarter when the Warbirds were able to put the game away with two touchdowns from Jordan Gandy and Trey Shaw.
“I thought North Texas played a really good game for the most part, they did some stuff to us against our defense that was really, really tough,” Warbirds coach Tate Smith said. “We put pressure on them early and they had answers taking the underneath stuff.”
Smith felt that Bulls coach Victor Mann worked his scheme well against the Warbirds defensive backs.
West Texas was in control since the start of the game, building up a 33-24 lead by the end of the first half but saw things change when North Texas quarterback Carlos Rodgers completed a 5-yard passing touchdown to Elijah Johnson early in the third quarter to cut the deficit to one point.
The Warbirds outscored the Bulls 19-6 after that touchdown, taking over by shifting their focus to the ground game.
Trevonte Coleman, Gandy and Shaw found their way into the end zone with three separate runs between the third and fourth quarters, with Shaw scoring the game’s final points with 48 seconds remaining in regulation.
Smith said his players need to take what the defense is giving them to fully gain control against teams that can strike in an instant.
“North Texas did some stuff where they were moving backers out of the boxes and our o-line coach and our running back coach did a good job of seeing that early,” Smith said. “That allowed [Coleman] to have the big plays and we were getting them in formations where it was forcing them to go one way and we were running right back in behind that jet backer.”
Coleman closed out the contest with 99 rushing yards and two scores on nine carries, while Shaw went 10-for-13 through the air for 126 yards and three touchdowns.
The Warbirds moved to 3-0 on the campaign and are set to face the Texas Jets at 7:05 p.m. May 28 at the Ector County Coliseum.
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