Maybe some home cooking, especially during Homecoming Week, will do the trick for the Yuma High School football team.
The newly-christened Outlaws host the Burlington Cougars on Friday at 7 p.m.
It will be just the second home game of the season to date, and first since the Outlaws beat Burns, Wyoming, 38-8 on September 1.
Yuma has lost three straight since then, including last Friday’s 27-7 game at Wiggins in the Tigers’ Homecoming game. The Outlaws are now 2-3 overall, and 0-1 in the North Central Conference.
They have scored just seven points over the past three games.
The Outlaws find themselves traveling a difficult road to qualify for the playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons (2020’s COVID-19 season the only outlier.) The program also has enjoyed four straight winning seasons.
After Friday’s game, the Outlaws close out the regular season against Wray (home), Holyoke (there) and Limon (home).
Yuma is No. 14 in the MaxPrep Rankings for Class 1A, and No. 17 in the CHSAA Rating Percentage Index. Burlington comes to town with a 1-4 record, but is No. 13 in the Max Preps Ranking and No. 14 in the RPI. (MaxPreps Ranking and CHSAA RPI are combined to determine the 16-team playoff field.)
The Cougars’ lone win to date came against Goodland, Kansas. They opened North Central play last Friday with a 55-14 loss at Limon. In the other NCC opener last Friday, Holyoke cruised past Wray 32-14.
Limon is No. 1 in the MaxPreps Ranking and No. 1 in the RPI. Holyoke is No. 2 in MaxPreps, and No. 3 in the RPI.Wray is No. 6 in MaxPreps and No. 10 in the RPI. Wiggins is No. 7 in MaxPreps and No. 6 in the RPI.
Besides Burlington coming to Yuma, this week’s NCC action has Wray hosting Limon, and Wiggins hosting Holyoke.
After years of running an up-tempo passing offense, Wiggins has switched to an up-tempo run-heavy offense under the guidance of a new head coach.
The Tigers finished last Friday’s game with 297 yards on the ground, averaging more than 5.2 yards per rush. Yuma ran for 141 yards on 36 attempts, an average of nearly four yards.
The game started out looking like the Tigers might run away with the victory.
Yuma had the ball first and drove to about midfield, but then lost a fumble.
Wiggins marched downfield to score for a 7-0 lead.
A penalty on the ensuing kickoff allowed Wiggins to do it again, and Yuma ended up taking over on its own 9-yard line.
The Outlaws could not move the ball, and a short punt resulted in the Tigers taking over on Yuma’s 24. The Tigers were back in the end zone a few plays later for a 14-0 lead.
However, Yuma finally was able to put together a sustained scoring drive. The Outlaws ate up much of the second quarter going 80 yards in 15 plays. A 28-yard pass from Jonathan Thomson to Brody Sheffield on third-and-15 was key to keeping it alive, and another pass to Damien Kosinski helped set up short yardage deep in Tigers’ territory.
Thomson eventually capped the scoring drive with a three-yard run, and Omar Lozano made his first extra-point kick attempt of the season.
Both teams managed to throw interceptions on their last drives of the first half.
However, the Outlaws were in the game, trailing by just a touchdown.
Wiggins, though, just kept pounding away in the second half. The Tigers marched downfield on its first drive in the second half, but the Outlaws caught a break when a penalty negated a touchdown run, followed by Silas Baucke snagging an interceptions.
Yuma could not move the ball and had to punt from its down end zone. A great return set up Wiggins at Yuma’s 20, and the Tigers scored a few plays later for a 20-7 lead.
The Outlaws drove to about midfield on its next possession, but bogged down and a chance to convert on fourth down fell incomplete.
Wiggins then marched 55 yards, capped by a 12-yard touchdown run with less than 4 minutes left.
The Tigers improved to 4-1 overall, 1-0 in the NCC. Jayson Lousberg led the ground attack with 183 yards and two touchdowns.
Kosinski led Yuma on the ground with 59 yards on seven carries, while Thomson had 48 on 15 carries, and Baucke 33 on 11 attempts. Thomson completed two of nine passes for 33 yards, one to Sheffield and one to Kosinski.
Defensively, Baucke and Bridger Lynch both had interceptions. Thomson was in on 12 tackles, Kosinski nine, Hugo Montes seven, Adrian Carranza seven, David Covarrubias six, Baucke six, Carson Lynch six, Trey Stegman five, Reyli Trejo five, Sheffield four, Christian Munoz four, Aidan Chadwick two, James Brandner two and Pablo Becerra two.
