Oct. 20—COULEE CITY — The Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors (7-0) earned yet another dominant victory at home with 475 yards of offense leading to a 58-6 rout of the Wilbur-Creston-Keller Wildcats on Friday.
"It went really well; (the) kids played well (and) we got off to a fast start," Head Coach Brandon Walsh said.
More than half of the Warriors' points came in the first quarter alone, further emphasizing their fast start. Quarterback Max Grindy dished out passing touchdowns to Trey Kast, Jackson Elder and Nolan Grindy — each of whom went for 40 yards or more. Two more scores in the second quarter gave the Warriors a 44-0 lead at halftime.
The second half saw more of the ACH depth get on the field. Quin Peha, quarterback Easton Ewing and Ryan Hernandez seized the opportunity by putting up two more scores in the third quarter. The Wildcats were unable to get on the board until the fourth quarter off a 35-yard passing touchdown.
Coming into this game, the Wildcats were 5-0 and averaged about 60 points a game. The Warriors' physical defense made a statement holding them to single digits.
"Our overall defense is very fast, and they do a great job of playing in their assignments," Walsh said. "We were able to bottle up Wilbur in their run game, and then we got good pressure on the quarterback. Our defensive line is really good, honestly; it starts there, and everything else from there back, they all complement one another really well."
While the run has been a consistent staple of the Warriors offense this season, it was the pass game that shined on Friday. Max completed eight of 10 passes for 241 yards and five touchdowns. Though it wasn't the intentional focus for ACH, the Wildcats' defensive approach enabled them to adjust and lean on their quarterback's arm, Walsh said.
"That's just kind of how the game went," said the coach. "Credit to Wilbur, they did a good job of stuffing our run early. They had us game-planned pretty good in that, and so we threw the ball with a lot of success. It's nice that we have that capability. The O-line did a fantastic job of protecting the quarterback, and receivers did a great job of running to the open spots, and Max did a nice job of getting the ball to them."
Ewing was also efficient in the pocket, completing three of five passes for 87 yards and one touchdown.
Currently ranked first in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association's Rating Percentage Index rankings, the Warriors have come across multiple state tournament contenders, they now hold wins over Wilbur (3), Liberty Christian (9) and the defending state champion DeSales (8).
With each statement win, Walsh feels those games exemplify how far this team has come throughout 2026.
"I told the kids before the game, it's obviously a rivalry game, and it was homecoming week, and all of these kinds of things," he said. "I told them I was excited about the game, not because of those things, but because I wanted to see how good we'd gotten over the course of the last seven weeks, and I thought it really showed on Friday we've gotten better. We're not plateauing at this stage, and that's such an important thing, moving into the playoffs here in a few weeks, and that's exciting."
Walsh pointed out that it hasn't been talent alone that has gotten the Warriors to this point in 2026. It's also been their mentality and approach to the game week to week.
"We talk about that a lot, the message from day one was (that) we want to get better every day and then every week and make sure we don't plateau or peak too early," Walsh said. "They've done a great job of buying into that. It doesn't seem like they're content with where they're at. And it's just such a senior-heavy group with a couple of years of us almost making it behind us, and so they're highly motivated (to) take the next step this year. As coaches, we're really happy with the progress we've made and the mindset of continual growth."
The Warriors will receive a rare bye week of sorts, due to Odessa not having enough players and therefore having to forfeit their game this Friday. ACH will now get a week to recuperate as they prepare for their final regular season game on Oct. 30 when they travel to play Wellpinit at 1 p.m.
In the meantime, practices will focus on fundamentals, including tackling and blocking, with some extra conditioning; players will also get time to rest, Walsh said.
"You're always in game plan mode throughout the regular season, and so we'll have an opportunity to do some of that as we approach the playoffs," said the coach. "The mental break is not horrible, with this group, I'm not overly worried with (their) mindset, and certainly not worried about them getting rusty. You start in middle August, and it's a grind if you make it all the way out to the end of the postseason, and a lot of days in a row, and not many days off, so it'll be nice for the kids. We'll take Friday off, and it'll be nice for them to just relax a little this week."
BOX SCORE
WLBR: 0-0-0-6: 6
ACHW: 30-14-14-0: 58