Warriors shutdown Papillion, will face Bennington in semi-finals

Westside secured their spot in the state semi-finals with their 11th straight win of the season beating Papillion La-Vista 35-0. The Warriors were without star running back Tay Tay Jenkins as he was battling a knee injury all week. Nonetheless Westside made due with what they had along with their fourth defensive shutout of the season cruised to victory.

Papillon was the one to open the game with a big play picking off Braylen Warren on a big fourth down stop, Westside’s defense did not waiver forcing a three and out to give Westside the ball back. Warren found Bryce Johnson for a big 47 yard reception to set up Tristian Gerez-James to punch it in from a yard out to put the Warriors on the board early. The second quarter started off slow after a promising drive for the Monarchs turned into a punt, Mick DiLorenzo provided the spark taking a screen pass 64 yards to flip the field in a play with Luke Weiss scoring two plays later to go up 14-0. The Warrior special teams also made big plays throughout the game, none more big than a blocked punt by Cam Graziano which put the Warriors at the Papillion 10 yard line where DiLorenzo scored a play later to make it quickly 21-0 midway through the second quarter. Another Papillion punt allowed Warren and offense to score once more with Weiss finding the endzone again just before halftime to go up 28-0.

Westside opened the second half right where they started forcing another Papillion punt which the Warriors turned into another seven with their last touchdown of the night coming early in the third quarter by Gerez-James. With the running clock the rest of the game went by pretty quickly with the Monarchs getting as close as the Westside nine yard line but not managing to find a way into the endzone which gave the Warriors another shutout and the Monarchs their worst loss of the season 35-0.

“We knew it was gonna be a handful,” Warren said. “We had to come off strong and fight hard but it was a good win for us.”

The Warriors offense, although not stuffing the stat sheet played solid complimentary football going for 290 total yards compared to their average of of 442. Warren had another productive day through the air going 9/17 for 199 yards and three touchdowns adding another 28 with his legs, Gerez-James had 48 yards and two touchdowns filling in for the injured Jenkins providing the Warriors with a bigger runner one short yard situations, DiLorenzo led the Warriors in receiving with 74 yards and a touchdowns followed closely by Weiss with 50 yards and two scores with Johnson providing 47 more yards.

It was the Warriors defense that was the biggest talking point of the game holding the Monarch offense to 151 total yards and have yet to allow a point in these playoffs. Monarch quarterback Wyatt Grimes was held to 7/22 for 78 yards, the most productive offensive player for the Monarchs was freshman Ka’Leeh Vaughn who had 19 carries for a team high 97 yards, Dante Starr led the Monarchs in receiving with three catches and 34 yards. The Monarchs finish the season with 8-3 record two of losses coming to the top ranked Warriors

The Warriors go to the semi-finals to face the Bennington Badgers. Bennington was just recently appointed to Class A. Bennington was a Class B powerhouse winning three consecutive state championships and 46 games in a row. Bennington is 10-1 coming into Phelps field with their only loss coming in the last week of the regular season to Millard North 35-0. This is the first unique in-state opponent Westside has faced since 2024 when they played Westview. It will be a battle of recent historical powerhouses with the winner going to the state championship to face either Millard North or Millard South.

“We got to come in, watch film and practice hard,” DiLorenzo said. “We have to be prepared during practice and execute.”

Warriors shutdown Papillion, will face Bennington in semi-finals

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