Warriors explode past Dragons

Western Albemarle didn’t quite kickoff the football season the way it had hoped, dropping three of its first four games.
However, after Friday night’s sound 55-13 victory over William Monroe, the Warriors are starting to get things going in the right direction.
“That felt good,” said Western coach Ed Pierce. “It’s a new scheme and you have to get the timing right and the quarterback has to put it where it needs to go. So we knew it was going to take a while and that we had to be patient. Tonight we executed it very well.”
Quarterback Stephen Schuler had his best outing of the year, passing for three touchdowns and rushing for another. The junior signal-caller completed nine of his 12 passes for 95 yards and rushed four times for 21 yards.
“This all started in practice,” Schuler said. “We had a great week. We showed what we can do out on the field, but we can still do a lot more to get better.”
Foley was a favorite target for Schuler. He led all receivers with four catches for 95 yards and pair of touchdowns.
“We executed a lot of plays really well,” Schuler said. “I’ve always had a great relationship with Matt, we’re good friends, so it’s easy to come here and play well with him.”
Seth Bowman came in for Schuler in the second quarter when the Warriors (2-3, 1-0) went up 27-0. The backup picked up where Schuler left going 3 for 4 and completing a 49-yard touchdown pass to Matt Foley.  The Warriors reportedly tied a VHSL record in the second quarter by scoring 41 points.
The Warriors also played solid defense as Chris Drapanas hauled in three interceptions.
“Drapanas had three interceptions on his own and almost had a fourth,” Pierce said. “That’s a kid who has never played football before. He’s just a tremendous
athlete, but also very smart.”
While the Dragons (0-4, 0-1) struggled on offense and defense, they did play well on special teams.
In the second quarter Desmond Shaver returned a kickoff for a touchdown on a 63-yard return. After Western went up 41-6, the Monroe special teams scored again, this time from Terrance Johnson who scored on an 81-yard return.
“Those guys came out and played great on special teams,” said Monroe coach Tom Hoffman. “But the rest, we just came out flat today.”
The Dragons stopped the bleeding in the second half, but turnovers and penalties in the first half dug too deep of a hole.
“Western offensively, they were on,” Hoffman said. “We just made too many turnovers and they outblocked us, outplayed us.”
While Hoffman and his team hope to fix their problems on Monday, Pierce is happy to have his squad playing quality football when it matters most.
“We were disappointed in how we started out the season,” Pierce said. “Now we’re getting into district play where everything matters and everything counts. So this was a good game for us heading into a tough district schedule.”