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Picked on all of last season, WCHS secondary answers challenge against Gilbert

It was late in the first half Friday night when Webster City senior free safety Sean Vogelbacher turned into Crash Davis, for one play anyway.

You remember Crash, right? The fictional character played by Kevin Costner in Bull Durham, one of the greatest sports movies of all-time.

Think back to the part when Crash ensured the Bulls would get a rainout by turning on the sprinklers in the stadium and flooding it. But he had some fun, too, sprinting around the bases and finishing it off by sliding head first into the plate as water flew everywhere.

Lynx Field, at least on the Webster City sideline, was similarly flooded Friday night. How much water was there? Everyone found out when Gilbert quarterback Cole Drzycimski threw a pass away near the 25-yard line to avoid a sack as the season-opening football game neared halftime.

Vogelbacher went after that pass though. He laid out and sprayed water everywhere as he slid all the way back to the fence. I immediately thought he needed a snorkel.

The Lynx sideline went crazy. The fans roared with approval.

And in that moment of aggression from Vogelbacher I knew one thing – this was a new and improved WCHS secondary.

The back line of Vogelbacher, Jordan Moen, Landon Daniels, Alec Fuhs and James Van Diest all saw ample playing time a year ago. Everywhere they looked there was another bully with his hand out for their lunch money.

Gilbert threw for 174 yards. Carroll went to the air for 253. Humboldt torched the unit for 414 and six touchdowns, topped only by the 543 yards and five TDs Boone piled up.

After last season, those five players had a choice: accept defeat or go to work to do something about it.

They chose the latter.

Drzycimski’s statistical line – 19 incompletions in 26 throws and two interceptions – tells you all you need to know. Gilbert thought it could take advantage of a weak secondary.

Gilbert thought wrong.

“All of those guys played very well,” WCHS head coach Bob Howard said. “Vogelbacher is a heck of a free safety, and Daniels pulled a groin on Wednesday night and didn’t practice (on Thursday), so he sucked it up and played well.

“All of those guys are improved and they had to be improved.”

I made the Crash Davis comparison for this reason – there’s no chance anyone in the secondary would have made that attempt a year ago. Anytime a pass went out of bounds or flew over the heads of receivers, you could almost see the group breathe a collective sigh of relief.

They were back on their heels. Probably intimidated. Maybe even a little scared.

None of that was present Friday night, and that will only bolster morale and confidence going forward.

“Last year was last year. It’s a new year now,” Moen, who picked off a pass late in the fourth quarter, said afterwards. “No excuse for last year, we just didn’t play well. But (Friday) we had good drops on our curls and we just looked to get our hands on thrown passes.”

It wasn’t all perfect. There were still some missed tackles by everyone on the defense and other areas that can be shored up.

But as first impressions go, Vogelbacher, Moen, Daniels, Fuhs and Van Diest made a good one.

We’ll see what happens down the road when WCHS sees other pass-happy teams, and first up will be Carroll in Week 3.

The Tigers may be successful spreading the field again. It probably wouldn’t surprise me.

It also won’t surprise me if the Tigers’ coaches look at each other and silently think ‘uh-oh’ after a couple series of swatted away passes.

And that’s something I never thought a season ago.

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