Waverly football adds to best start in two decades with win over Everett
DELTA TWP. − A few minutes after they saw the Waverly football team expand its lead to 20 in the early stages of the second half, members of the student section started chanting, "3-and-0."
It had been two decades since the Warriors have been able to have 3-0 next to their name when it came to football.
But now Waverly finds itself in that position for the first time since 2002 after its 39-14 home victory over Lansing Everett on Friday night in a CAAC Blue opener.
"It means a lot, definitely," said Waverly quarterback Ronnie Spencer, who had three touchdown runs. "We're trying to achieve the goals that we have set for the season, so it's nice to still be on track for those."
The Warriors are off to a 3-0 start for just the third time since 1964. With its latest victory, Waverly has exceeded its win total from last season and matched its 2021 conference win total. But first-year coach DeYeya Jones wasn't pleased with how the Warriors played while extending their win streak.
"I don't like to get complacent," Jones said. "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. There was nothing to like about the first half at all. The second half I think we kind of played our game a little bit, but we still need to get better. I can't lie. I'm not satisfied with our performance today."
Warriors shake off slow start
Waverly was plagued by special team miscues early, which led to a slow start. Everett took a 6-0 lead on a touchdown reception by Javari Funchess on the opening play of the second quarter.
The Warriors responded on the next drive behind Jahi Wood's rushing abilities. Wood had the first of two rushing touchdowns to cap the drive. That started a stretch of 33 unanswered points for Waverly.
"It was kind of just realizing that we can't take a team for granted," Spencer said. "We expected to be out (to a lead) early, but it just didn't happen. We just had to regain our focus."
Waverly built a 19-6 lead at halftime after getting a rushing touchdown from Spencer in the closing seconds of the first half. An interception by Justis Ashley helped set up that late score.
Evan Walker added a kickoff return for a score in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring for the Warriors, who will take their perfect record on the road against Grand Ledge next week.
Waverly is now in position to get off to a 4-0 start for the first time in program history. Jones is keeping his team focused on taking a day-by-day approach as they look to keep building momentum.
"I look at all the games the same, I can't lie to you," Jones said. "We approach them the same each week. No game is more important than the others. We just live to play each game each week."
More:Greater Lansing high school football Week 3 schedule, scores
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing Waverly football gets to 3-0 with win over Lansing Everett
