Story by Parker Cassidy
The West Central Heat are still perfect heading into their biggest game of the season.
West Central improved to 6-0 with a 58-22 win over West Prairie/Southeastern last Friday night. The Heat jumped out to a 44-8 halftime lead, with Aidan Garner rushing for 312 yards and five touchdowns while also adding another score through the air.
Now the attention turns to Ridgewood, with the 8-Man Football Central West Conference title on the line Friday night.
West Central and Ridgewood both enter the matchup at 4-0 in conference play, and with both teams finishing the regular season with two nonconference games, Friday night will decide the conference championship. Ridgewood enters at 5-1 overall and is coming off a 50-46 win over Bushnell-Prairie City.
The Heat won last year’s meeting 36-26, and Head Coach Jason Kirby says West Central will have to be disciplined against a talented Ridgewood squad.
“We’ve got to be really disciplined in our alignment and our assignment. Coach Williams, when he was doing the scouting report for our kids on Monday, just put three letters up on the board and said this whole football game is about these three letters: A, A, T: alignment, assignment, and tackle. If we align correctly, we know our assignment and we tackle, then we’re going to be okay. They’re a very, very good football team. We’ve been so good all year at not putting the ball on the ground. We’ve been so good all year about not throwing interceptions. We just got to continue with that.”
West Central will hit the road Friday night looking to stay unbeaten and bring home the 8-man Central West title. Kickoff in Cambridge is scheduled for 7 PM.
For the complete interview with Coach Kirby, go to the SPORTS PODCAST section.
