The Airline Vikings defeated the Wossman Wildcats 48-42 in their season opener Friday night at M.D. Ray Field at Airline Stadium.
The game was a thriller, but Airline Head Coach Justin Scogin wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance.
“I thought we were very sloppy all the way around,” he said. “The good news is we won the game so it’s a lot easier to fix these things when you win, but I thought we’ve got to do a better job in in all three phases of the game if we’re going to beat people down the road.”
The Vikings lost three fumbles and had a turnover on downs in the first half.
“I thought we played well at times on both sides of the ball,” he said. “On offense, we fumbled the ball. The turnovers killed the momentum and put the defense in bad situations.
The defense played really well at times and then we kind of went on runs. We gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown. So just a lot of things that we should have done better that we didn’t and we got to work on.”
Senior quarterback Chase Williams ran for three touchdowns. He also completed a touchdown passes to junior Drew Warren and senior Justin Woodfork. Junior Chris Hart and sophomores Caleb Nunn scored one rushing touchdown each.
Scogin said his team handled the heat well.
“We had three go down to cramps,” he said. “They had a ton. But I thought they were extremely well-coached and they played hard. When we had opportunities to put them away, we didn’t do it, and that was that was kind of what I was disappointed in.”
Airline has won four straight season openers in Scogin’s five-plus years as head coach.
The Vikings play Byrd Thursday at Lee Hedges Stadium. Under District 1-5A’s new six-game format, it won’t count in the district standings.
The Yellow Jackets fell to defending non-select Division I champion Ouachita Parish 44-37 in Monroe in their season opener.
Note: This report will be updated with stats when they are received.