Warner Robins football dominates Veterans in final non-region game

WARNER ROBINS — Warner Robins brought home a decisive 41-10 win over the Warhawks on homecoming.

Veterans (0-5) found themselves in a similar position as last week down 28-0 at halftime with procedural penalties punishing their offensive efforts.

The Demons move to 4-1 on the season as they prepare for region play. 

Three observations from Friday’s game:

PHOTOS: See more photos from Friday’s game.

1. Demons’ special teams had stark ups and downs

A recurring theme this year is that the special teams unit for Warner Robins can be very good, but also very bad.

The Demons’ first score of the game came on a 61-yard punt return touchdown from Rasean Dinkins with 7:17 to play in the first quarter.

On the flip side Will Shepherd started the night 0-of-2 on field goals; One was blocked, and the other missed the mark as Warner Robins attempted to get on the board. They also had a blunder in the third quarter where a player (not the returner) touched the punt but didn’t field it, and that led to Veterans’ first and only offensive score of the game on a 37-yard field goal.

The Demons also had two of their kicks blocked: Their first field goal attempt of the game in the first quarter, and a point-after attempt in the fourth quarter.

It’s been a focus area for Warner Robins football coach Shane Sams, and he touched on it again after Friday’s win:

“We got a lot to get better on. We got to focus more on [special teams]. It’s going to come to cost us if we don’t fix it, and [make sure our kids buy in] 100%. We got to keep moving forward,” Sams said.

2. Got the ground game going

Veterans’ run defense has proven that it can stop some of the most physical players from running the ball inside. However, it’s also proven that it struggles to contain the run as it moves outside.

The Demons found a lot of success running the ball outside. Whether it was Da’veon Latimore, Kelsey Perkins or Travis English Jr., Warner Robins got it done on the ground.

Part of that was the offensive line and tight ends doing a great job getting outside and engaging Kane Byrd, Lincoln Goode and others at linebacker.

Four of Warner Robins’ five offensive touchdowns came on the ground. English had three of them.

“We kind of schemed up their fronts a little bit, kind of see what they were going to do and how they’re going to operate,” Sams said. “So we just mix it up from there. What fronts they’re lining up in between pinching, moving, backers, we just mix those things up and attack where we need to.”

3. The Veterans quarterback play improved from last week

As anticipated, the Warhawks did not fumble snaps like they did last week. In fact, there were times that the center was using two hands to snap the ball to prevent that.

Unfortunately for Veterans, their attack through the air still couldn’t gain much traction. Their most successful offensive plays were to Tylan Glover and Justin Shine on the ground.

That being said, freshman Rowan Singleton looked the most polished (albeit against Warner Robins’ backups). He had the most successful sequence of passes late in the fourth quarter.

Singleton made a tight-window throw to get Veterans out of their own five-yard line and got another completion to Kaden Gutierrez. Masters once again got most of the snaps, though, so it’s assumed he’ll be QB1 as the Warhawks enter region play.

UP NEXT

The Demons start region play by hosting winless Wayne County, who’s been outscored 101-0 in their last three games. They’ve scored 17 points all season, and have only had one game decided by less than five scores.

Veterans will host Houston County who will be fresh off of a bye week.