Western’s home opener comes against familiar opponent
By Jacob Meikel
Missouri Western football gets its chance to play in front of its home crowd this Saturday in a matchup with Missouri Southern.
The Lions left a bad taste in the mouth of Griffons when they crushed their hopes of making the Division II playoffs last season by defeating Western 47-41 in double overtime in the final game of the 2023 regular season. That loss was one that head coach Tyler Fenwick remembers well.
“It’s still bitter,” Fenwick said Monday. “The rest of my career, that will be a bitter one. But at the end of the day, Missouri Southern is a good football team. Even though they’re 0-2, but they played two really good football teams.”
The big question mark facing the Griffs heading into Saturday’s home opener is who will be taking snaps at quarterback as the team’s starter. Sophomore Kane Donovan had been the starter in the team’s first two games this season, but shaky play saw the former Southeastern Oklahoma State quarterback benched midway through last Saturday’s game against Fort Hays State for junior quarterback Branden Berwald. The position will be up for grabs this week in the practice’s leading up to Saturday according to Fenwick.
“We’re gonna evaluate just like we always do and probably a little bit more of an evaluation at this point in the season,” Fenwick said. “We’ve gotta find a consistent quarterback that is going to go out and complete passes.”
Fenwick emphasized that it is the job of the quarterback to distribute the football. As well as senior running back Brandon Hall has played for the Griffons so far this season, he doesn’t want teams to hone in on stopping Hall and only Hall.
The Griffs come off of a 30-16 loss to No. 24 Fort Hays State, one of many teams in the MIAA nationally ranked this season. Despite only losing by 14, Fenwick believes this group isn’t in the business of moral victories.
“They take it hard because we don’t sit there and say ‘that’s a top-25 team. We’re not supposed to win,’” Fenwick said. “I think they see how good we can be, but then coming in on Sunday and going through the mistakes and all the stuff, they see where we leave some things on the table that we need to fix.”
The Griffons kick off this Saturday against Missouri Southern at 6 p.m. at Spratt Stadium.
