ANADARKO —Even when faced with adversity, Cash Novotny refused to lose his nerve.
Making his first start as the Anadarko quarterback, the junior was less than 20 yards away from putting the Warriors up by two touchdowns on Harrah in the first quarter when the unthinkable happened.
Every quarterback’s worst fear manifested itself in the form of the Panthers’ defense as a tipped Novotny pass found its way into the hands of defensive back Chase Jackson, who returned it 94 yards for the game-tying score.
“I was frustrated,” Novotny said. “The first thing I did was take off after him. I almost got him, but I got hit big at the very end.”
Luckily for Novotny, the game-altering play was called back for a block in the back, and though the interception stood, any amount of doubt he developed while watching Jackson sprint to the end zone dissipated.
Novotny atoned for the mistake, racking up 111 yards on the ground and 75 through the air to lead Darko to a 30-7 Week Zero victory in front of a home crowd.
“Coach (Chris) Paddlety and the former quarterback came and talked to me and just told me to stay composed not get mad because he tipped it and it wasn’t really my fault,” Novotny said.
Paddlety said he never doubted Novotny’s drive and resolve.
“Cash is the man,” Paddlety said. “I made the decision in the spring that he was going to be the quarterback, and he’s our leader and gives 100 percent. He had his knee scoped late summer, so I don’t know if he’s 100 percent yet, but his vision is one of the best we’ve had here at Anadarko. You give him a little crease or a little seam, and he’s going to hit that hole like he showed tonight.
“After that interception, I told him to slow down and let the game come to him. He’s always jacked up, so I said relax and just take charge and everything will fall into place.”
Novotny’s first score came with 56 seconds left in the first half when he found running back Drukkari Goombi on the screen pass, and Goombi handled the rest, juking his way to a 25-yard touchdown to make the score 22-7 heading into the break.
Goombi, along with AJ Davis, helped Novotny present a deadly triple threat in the backfield, and the Panthers couldn’t find an answer.
The trio combined for 316 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 40 carries, an impressive 7.9 yards per carry. Davis finished with 106 yards on 11 carries, while Goombi churned out nine carries for 99 yards.
Of those combined carries, 11 went for 10 or more yards, including a 66-yard burst from Davis in the second quarter.
“We’re old-school mentality — we’re going to run the ball before we pass,” Paddlety said. “We have a lot of good skill guys too, though, and my hardest job is trying to spread the ball around to all those guys. But with Drukkari and AJ in the backfield, they keep each other fresh. They’re both hard runners, they’re both punishing runners and they run north and south, which is what I like. They’re patient and they have speed, so with that 1-2 punch, we should be successful in the running game.”
Of course, the defense deserves credit as well after allowing only seven points.
Aside from a misread that allowed Harrah’s Jeff Roberson to break free for a 72-yard touchdown in the second quarter, the Warriors prevented the Panthers from gaining any rhythm offensively.
Darko held Harrah to 2-of-7 on third downs and forced three turnovers — two fumbles and an interception. One of those fumbles came on the first play of the fourth quarter with Harrah threatening at the 11-yard line.
“We knew all week that Harrah runs the split-veer — an old-school offense that we’re not used to seeing,” Paddlety said. “Our No. 1 goal was to stop their fullback, and we did a pretty good job against him except once. Then they started running the quarterback option and had a little success, but when we needed to, we bent but we didn’t break.
“The defense did well as far as causing turnovers, tackling and recovering the ball. And when they had to throw it, we had good coverage and were able to get an interception.”
Despite the favorable outcome in his first outing as the Warriors’ head coach, Paddlety said there remains plenty of areas that must be improved. One of those areas is discipline.
Darko committed nine penalties for 48 yards, eight of which were false starts. The other was a delay of game.
“I told the boys you never take a win for granted,” Paddlety said. “We probably didn’t perform as well as I wanted us to — we had a lot of penalties — but I’m going to blame that on Week Zero. I don’t know if I like that a lot right now, but we might not have been ready after just one scrimmage.”
The Warriors (1-0) return to action on Aug. 31 for a home contest against Lexington.