Weatherford defeats

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  • Brett Bozarth, No. 18, reaches up to try and deflect a pass during Friday’s game against Bethany. Josh Burton/WDN
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The Weatherford Eagles football team got a monkey off their back Friday night at Woody Roof Field, beating the Bethany Bronchos for the first time since 2016.

The final score of this game was 28-14 and this was coach Regan Roof’s 100th win as a head coach. Roof was a coach at Bethany from 2002-16. He started as an assistant and in 2002 and became the head coach in 2008.

“Winning 100 games just means I have been coaching football for a long time,” Roof said. “I love the people at Bethany and had a wonderful time coaching football at Bethany. Bethany is a great program and they came out and played hard like we expected them to. I am so proud of my guys and the effort they put forth tonight.”

The start of the game did not go Weatherford’s way. They got the football and put a drive together, but didn’t score. Bethany marched right down the field on their first possession and scored a touchdown.

In the second quarter, Weatherford got on the board as Sam Hoffman scored a 1-yard rushing touchdown.

“When we were close to the goal line, we just executed really well,” Hoffman said. “We just hit Bethany in the mouth and were able to score a touchdown.”

Bethany put a drive together and scored a touchdown late in the second quarter and were ahead 14-7 at halftime.

“There are some things we must do in the second half on offense and defense,” Roof said. “We have to sustain drives better and find the end zone. On defense, we have to get off the field better and have given them some easy passes. We have to be more aggressive on defense and the biggest thing is getting our intensity going because it was not there in the first half. We need to get a stop, then we need to go score to tie the game and we must get our intensity up like it was last week against Clinton.”

Weatherford did those things and more in the second half. They got a couple stops and with less than 4 minutes, they pinned Bethany deep in its own territory.

Weatherford blitzed on a play and Ethan Downs stripped the ball out of Bethany’s quarterback’s hands and linebacker Ryan Shields recovered the fumble. Two plays later, Downs scored a rushing touchdown and the game was tied, 14-14, with 3:24 left in the game and remained tied going into the fourth quarter.

Shields said the team played much better in the second half, which was key to what happened in the fourth quarter.

“We came together a lot more in the second half,” Shields said. “In the second half, we played so much better and we were just so much better in the second half. Our main goal on defense was to not allow another point. We made the big plays in the second half and we kept them out of the red zone.”

In the fourth quarter, Weatherford took control as Malachi Johnson had some big rushes to keep drives going for Weatherford. Early in the fourth quarter, Johnson had a rush for 18, 14 and 26 yards and he finished the drive with a 5-yard touchdown, giving Weatherford a 21-14 lead. This was Weatherford’s first lead of the game.

“I tried as hard as I could and scored a touchdown,” Johnson said. “The most important thing is we keep coming together and we have to keep building trust. I trusted the lineman and Sam to block for me and create a hole, especially on that drive and when I scored a touchdown.”

Weatherford got another stop and got the football back with a little more than 5 minutes left in the game. Weatherford faced 3rd-and-9 and needed to convert to keep the drive alive.

Quarterback Gunnar Gaunt found Jacob Wilson open on the sideline and almost scored. Weatherford punched it into the end zone as Hoffman found the end zone on a 3- yard run, putting Weatherford up 28-14 with 4:04 left in the game.

“Sam and Malachi are tough to defend because they run really hard and can block well when we need them to,” Roof said. “Some weeks, one will have a big night and other weeks both will have a big night. This week they both had big nights. I am so proud of the unselfishness of this team and I love the way we come out and compete every Friday night.”

Bethany moved the football, but Tyler Jack Hoffman and Murphy Beck each had a sack and Weatherford got the ball back with less than 2 minutes left in the game. Hoffman picked up a first down with a minute left in the game and Gaunt took a knee to win the game and remain unbeaten on the season.

“Our guys did exactly what we asked them to do in the second half,” Roof said. “We came out, flipped the switch and played with much better intensity in the second half. The turnover forced by Ethan then recovered by Ryan was the difference. After that, we played so much better and grinded it out like we normally do.”

Hoffman said everyone did their part and they were still fired up from the Clinton win, which resulted in the early struggle.

“This is not an individual sport, but a team sport,” Hoffman said. “The offensive line did their part and we all played our heart out. The first half was not good, but the second half we picked it up. We struggled early because of the Clinton win Friday.”

Hoffman said they knew this would be a personal game since Roof, defensive coordinator Taylor Sossoman and offensive line coach Rob Renshaw used to coach at Bethany.

“We knew this game was going to be personal,” Hoffman said. “We took it to them in the second half and we got the win for our coaching staff tonight.”

Weatherford improves to 4-0 in district and 7-0 overall. Weatherford will play, 7 p.m. Friday against Cache

“Cache is a tough team,” Shields said. “We have a lot of momentum and next week will be a dog fight. We have to just keep getting better in practice.”