As they sat in their office this week assessing last week’s rout of Callaway, Warren Central’s coaches kept coming back to a handful of plays as being particularly impressive.
They weren’t the six turnovers the defense forced, nor the three touchdown passes quarterback Alex Stevens threw to spark the 34-6 rout.
It was a handful of incompletions that Stevens threw, where he tossed the ball away instead of taking a sack or forcing it into coverage.
“He saved us a few times,” offensive coordinator Rob Morgan said, with a grateful tone in his voice.
Those sorts of plays are what the coaching staff has come to expect from Stevens, a senior who is in his first season as a starter after spending two years as the varsity backup.
Stevens has completed 15 of 27 passes for 209 yards and three touchdowns this season, with no interceptions. In two games with him at the helm, the Vikings also have not committed a turnover. Their only one was a bad snap against Callaway that sailed over the head of backup quarterback Brooks Boolos.
WC head coach Josh Morgan said the steady play was the result of years of preparation that has led to good decision-making skills in the heat of the game.
“He’s been coach Rob’s right-hand man for two years. That’s a credit to him. He prepared like he was a starter, and that’s why you’re seeing the fast start,” Josh Morgan said. “He was born to be a quarterback.”
While some quarterbacks bristle at the label of “game manager” — in football circles, it generally means a quarterback with a weaker arm who doesn’t make a lot of thrilling plays, nor a lot of bad ones — Stevens embraces it.
He can go down the field, as his 47-yard touchdown pass to Miraculous Powers in last week’s win over Callaway showed, or throw with touch. His biggest asset, however, is knowing where the ball needs to go and how to get it there.
Stevens said the valuable skill was learned not just from game and practice reps, but his two years on the bench.
“I’ve been absorbing it since ninth grade, learning the offense and how to read defenses, and where the ball needs to go. It’s really helped me to be around the offense all that time,” Stevens said. “I feel the coaches prepared me to know where to go with the ball and make the right decisions.”
Stevens’ game management has also played perfectly into Warren Central’s overall strategy. The team is built around a suffocating defense that has allowed a total of 12 points in the first two games.
Knowing when to throw the ball away and avoid a turnover keeps the defense out of bad situations, which in turn puts the offense in better position to flip things around when it gets the ball back.
“He’s made all the right decisions. He can tell you why he did or didn’t do this or that. He’s kept our offense in front of the chains,” Josh Morgan said. “He’s been good for us on third downs. He understands that a punt is not necessarily a bad thing. If we have good defense and special teams, we can win some football games.”
Stevens, for his part, said he understands that philosophy and his role in it. If he can make a play, that’s OK, he said. If nothing’s there, that’s OK too.
“We’re really working on being smart with the ball and not throwing into coverage that might cause a turnover,” Stevens said. “There might have been receivers I could’ve thrown to. But it’s never a bad thing to throw the ball away. Live to play another day.”