West Point-Beemer crushes Arlington in season opener

Arlington-The West Point-Beemer Football team went into Arlington Friday night and came away with a big, 39-8 win over the Eagles.

Arlington struck first as Trevor Smailys scored from two yards out to cap a 15-play 65-yard drive on the Eagles' opening drive of the season.

It was all Cadets after that though as Hunter Pilakowski scored on a two-yard plunge with 9:35 left to go in the second quarter to make it an 8-7 game.

Kirby Hughes then scored from a yard out for West Point-Beemer with just under 5 minutes remaining until halftime to give the Cadets a 14-8 halftime lead.

Cole Hughes then connected with Chase Streeter on a 30-yard TD pass in the latter stages of the third quarter to give West Point-Beemer a 20-8 lead.

Moments later, Blake Anderson hit Ben Vander Griend from 20 yards out to put the Cadets up 27-8.

West Point-Beemer put the finishing touches on the win in the fourth quarter as Pilakowski scored his second touchdown from two yards out to make it a 33-8 game in favor of the Cadets.

The final West Point-Beemer touchdown was scored by Edgar Rodriguez with 2.7 seconds remaining in the game. That touchdown made up the final score.

Pilakowski amassed 159 yards rushing for the Cadets while Cole Hughes had 54 yards on 4 attempts.

The Cadets (1-0) had 383 yards of offense, 301 coming on the ground. Arlington (0-1) had 170 yards of total offense, including 150 rushing.

Head Coach Troy Schlueter says forcing four turnovers helped grab the win. "Just like always there's turnovers. You know something momentum's going to swing. I believe our goal coming into the game was we want 3 turnovers plus. Can't remember exactly how many we got, maybe we got 3 or 4. So when you win the turnover battle a lot of times good things happen, and sometimes things can get a little bit out of hand when that happens too so we were fortunate in that area for sure."

Schlueter says he wasn't too worried after Arlington opened the game with the 15-play 65-yard touchdown drive. "Well here's what we told the kids...we said hey last year they did that in 3 plays...this year it took them like 10. So if you make them earn everything that they're getting all game long we're going to have a good night. We felt like if we make them earn every yard it'd be a pretty tight ball game so we were proud about that actually."

Schuleter adds he knows how Arlington feels with a bunch of new guys on the squad this year. "They had a very experienced team last year, and took it to us pretty good. Which they should of done. You know what I mean that was good. And we felt like we had the same edge this year coming in. We returned 9 starters on offense and 7 on defense. So we felt pretty good coming in. I mean it's tough to get kids ready for a first game that have never started before. And I think they had maybe only two starters back. So Coach Gubbels has got a good head on his shoulders...he's a great guy. And I know they'll be a lot tougher in week 5 and 6 than they were tonight cause it's tough to get new guys ready."

This was a great win for West Point-Beemer. I must say I thought the Cadets were going to be good, but not this good. Very good win for West Point-Beemer. The Cadets definitely sent out a message to the rest of Class C-1 that they are for real and a force to be reckoned with, in my opinion.

West Point-Beemer hosts North Bend Central (0-1) this coming Friday night.

The Tigers lost 27-26 at home in overtime to Louisville this past Friday night.

I must say I was surprised North Bend Central fell to the Lions, but the Tigers started off slow, and that was the difference in the game from the looks of things.

So based on last week's results the Cadets should win, and win big, but it's a new week and a new game, and every week West Point-Beemer has to go out there and prove themselves.

I think the Cadets have already turned some heads, but the last thing West Point-Beemer can afford to do is get cocky and overconfident, and think they have the game won before they play it.

The Cadets have to come ready to play, and must bring the lunch pail for 4 quarters. North Bend Central is big, and you can bet the Tigers will come ready to play, and give West Point-Beemer their best shot.

I fully expect both teams to come ready to play Friday night, but there can only be one victor, and based on last week I have to give the edge to the Cadets.

North Bend Central showed they are a second half team though so West Point-Beemer has to play another complete 4 quarter game like they did against Arlington.

The Cadets were in an underdog role last week, and now they are a favorite, so it will be interesting to see what sort of impact, if any, that has on the game.

The biggest thing for West Point-Beemer is going out there and playing their game, and mistake free football.

The Cadets just have to do the same things they did against the Eagles, which includes creating turnovers and taking care of the ball.

West Point-Beemer went into their bag of tricks this past Friday, and had a lot of success.

The Cadets have to continue to run the ball effectively and sprinkle in the pass. West Point-Beemer's ability to have some sort of balance on offense is going to be critical to their future success, in my opinion.