Schools
UPDATE: Waukee Falls to Fourth-Ranked Foe
The Warriors remained scoreless against fourth-ranked Southeast Polk Friday night, 0-35.
After a hard-fought win over pre-season top 10 Sioux City East last week, the Waukee Warrior football team was prepared to take on fourth-ranked Southeast Polk. The Warriors fell to the Rams, 0-35 Friday night.
"I'd put our non-conference schedule up against anybody else's, we may have the toughest one in the state," Waukee head coach Scott Carlson said.
The Rams went into Friday night's game with a 2-0 record in which they've outscored their opponents 97-13. Waukee comes in with a 1-1 mark; a season-opening loss to Ankeny paired with last week's win against the Black Raiders.
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Carlson says when you get to this point in your season, it's time to just polish up on the little things.
"This week was all back to the fundamentals," Carlson said. "It's not a matter of finding one thing you can do 100 percent better, it's a matter of identifying as many things as you can and doing them 1 percent better."
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Sometimes high school-aged players and focus don't go hand-in-hand, Carlson added.
"Staying focused is important, and that can be tough for high school kids," he said. "We're telling them to just take it one game at a time, our total concentration now and our total focus has to be on Southeast Polk."
Senior fullback/linebacker Nate Lucs acknowledges the task at hand.
"As a team we're working on keeping focused," Lucs said. "We know when we're focused, we'll be able to do big things."
Last season the Rams defeated the Warriors 28-14 at Waukee Stadium. Tonight, the two square off at Southeast Polk in what promises to be a challenge for the Warriors.
"It's going to be a physical game," said Lucs. "It's going to be a good one though, and it should be a close one too."
This will be the third consecutive pre-season top 10 team the Warriors have faced this season. Iowapreps.com has the Rams ranked fourth in its latest top 10.
"It's a great football team," Carlson said. "It might be the best team we've played so far. I may sound like a broken record but we've got our hands full again this week."