In the last game before Foothill League play begins West Ranch (2-2) lost to St. Paul (2-1) 42-7.

Throughout the game the Wildcats struggled with ball security, which gave St. Paul multiple scoring opportunities.

“St. Paul is a heck of a team, the last two teams we played gave us some confidence but they weren’t competition,” said West Ranch Head Coach Chris Varner. “Tonight we had competition. I felt we did some good things in the first half but we just didn’t close when we needed to. The ball didn’t bounce our way, we didn’t make the plays that we needed and that’s our inexperience.”

In their first drive the Wildcats found success early on moving the ball down the field.

The offense was running with aggression but the drive would ultimately end with quarterback Liam McDaniel throwing a touchdown pass to Jack Samuelson to take a 7-0 lead.

St. Paul repaid the favor by driving down the field on their first drive to score a touchdown to tie the game 7-7.

Looking to replicate their first drive and regain the lead West Ranch began to drive the ball down the field once again.

St. Paul would take matters into their own hands and caused a fumble and recovered the ball.

Within a few plays the Swordsmen were already in striking distance.

Eager to gain the lead, St. Paul found the endzone once again.

Due to a missed PAT the Swordsmen would only be up 13-7.

Going into halftime the Wildcats knew if they could work on their ball security and stop St. Paul’s run game they had a chance at getting a win.

The Wildcats did not start the half the way they wanted but instead allowed St. Paul’s Christian Melendez to rush for a touchdown.

Instead of going for the PAT the Swordsmen opted to go for a two point conversion and gave the ball back to Melendez to take a 21-7 lead.

St. Paul’s quest to find the end zone did not end there because they would score another rushing touchdown by Ty Bowers to take a 28-7 lead.

The Swordsmen kept their foot on the gas and scored two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

The pair of touchdowns came from a 20 yard pass and the other from a 45 yard rushing touchdown to close out the game 42-7.

“St. Paul is a heck of a team that is going to get us ready for a team like Canyon,” said Varner. “I like our confidence going into next week. Going against this team we learned a lot and we just have to keep improving.”

West Ranch is set to face Canyon in the first game in the Foothill League, Thursday 9/14 beginning 7 p.m. at Canyon High School.

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