Leyton Falls to Hitchcock County, 50-14

Leyton’s unbeaten season came to a halt Friday night in Dalton as the visiting Hitchcock County Falcons took advantage of Leyton injuries to hand the Warriors their first defeat of the season, 50-to-14. With standout junior running back KJ Bush out for the game and possibly the season with an ACL injury, and seniors Dawson Wiggins and Zack Henke out with injuries, the Warriors had a tough time moving the ball on offense.

Leyton went into the game looking to force the Falcons to pass, but were fooled too many times with play action, and the Falcons were able to cash in on missed tackles and other errors. A strong wind hampered both team’s passing attacks for a majority of the game, and Leyton could not get their offense on track to move the ball and gain first downs. After being shut out in the first quarter, the Warriors finally put up a touchdown and a two point conversion, but they went into halftime down 32-to-8.

Head Coach Glen Lipska said, “We missed too many tackles, tackles on fourth down and tackles in the backfield and too many went for touchdowns. For the first three quarters we had trouble throwing because of the wind and had to rely on our running game. Hitchcock’s defense was very aggressive and swarmed the ball all night.”

Injuries also hit the Warriors during the game when starting senior running back and linebacker Dominick Russ went down with a shoulder injury, and his younger brother sophomore Damyn Russ was knocked out with an arm injury.

The depleted Warriors could not stop the Falcon’s offense and could not sustain drives effectively, and ended up on the losing side of the 50-to-14 final tally. The Warriors look to heal up and get back on track as they travel to Mullen to take on the 4-and-2 Broncos Friday. Lipska said, “Mullen has been traditionally a running team but they are passing more, and by looking at their game stats and film, they are spreading teams out and throwing the ball more, but they are still run the ball, just mixing things up.”