Nov. 6, 2009

7 p.m.

White House, TN | Dewey H. Whitson Stadium

By Kris Freeman, Connection Sports

The 2009 season came to a disappointing end in the first round of the Class 4-A playoffs for the White House Blue Devils with a 42-6 loss at home to Whites Creek.

Javier Booker threw for 181 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two more as the Cobras jumped out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back. Running up 341 yards of total offense in just 19 minutes with the football, the visitors from Nashville averaged nine yards per play.

White House struggled to move the ball on the vaunted Whites Creek defense, ranked third in Class 4-A coming into the game – only allowing 96 points for the year. A 19-yard touchdown pass from Aussie Light to Trent McEwen cut the lead to 14-6 in the second quarter, but the extra point was blocked and the Blue Devils did not put another point on the scoreboard.

Light was 10-of-21 for 78 yards with a touchdown, but threw two second half interceptions coming out of the intermission. The first led to an 11-yard run by Booker to make it 34-6, then Squeaky Barnes returned the second 75 yards for a touchdown and a 42-6 advantage, which would eventually become the final.

Three fumbles contributed to five White House turnovers and tailback Bryan Dixon’s career ended in the first quarter with an ankle injury on his third carry of the game. Dixon battled the injury late in the season and finished about 70 yards shy of the 1,000-yard rushing mark for his senior year.

McEwen had three catches for the Blue Devils, making the sophomore the new school record holder for most catches in a season with 42 receptions, passing the mark of 41 set by Josh Lanius in 1997. Corey Coker holds the career receptions record with 77.

The Blue Devils ended the season 6-5 and the 10 senior players and one manager will graduate after playing 50 games and four trips to the state playoffs, in every round but the finals. Whites Creek moves on to the second round to face Livingston Academy, a 41-0 winner over Stone Memorial in the opening round.

Whites Creek wasted no time jumping out to a lead with a seven-play, 70-yard drive with Booker getting assistance from his line for a one-yard sneak. The pass from Booker to Sebastian Kertchaval was good for an 8-0 edge just two minutes into the game.

White House punted and Barnes caught a 54-yard swing pass from Booker and took it to the house but the two-point pass failed to make it 14-0. The Blue Devils marched 11 plays and 65 yards to pay dirt with McEwen catching the pass from the 19 to cut the margin, but that was as close as WHHS came.

Clifford Jetton caught a 14-yard pass from Booker with four minutes to go in the first half, then Jeremy Cole snagged a 24-yard grab for a 28-6 halftime lead.

Cody Adair returned the second half kickoff to the 23 and White House picked up the benefit of a 15-yard late hit penalty to earn good field position to start the third quarter. But on the first play, Jonjuan Dodson picked off Light at the Whites Creek 47 and took it back to the White House 22, with a late hit tacked on to the 11. Booker scored on the first play to make it 34-6.

Four plays later, Barnes intercepted Light at the 25 and went three-quarters of the field to the endzone for a touchdown and the final points came when Booker hit Keith Woods on the two-point conversion.

White House ran 53 plays and had the ball for 29:15, but only 187 yards of total offense. Forced into 13 third downs, White House made eight of them, but failed to consistently finish drives, hampered by turnovers.

Logan Stem rushed eight times for 27 yards and caught three passes, while Cole Elrod and Andy James each had two grabs. Light rushed 13 times for 39 yards to lead the Blue Devils as Dixon left with three carries for 17.

Zack Byrd finished his career with 106 tackles during his senior year with nine for the game, joining Kevin Jackson with the same as the sophomore also reached the milestone with 100 tackles. Tazz Rogers recovered his first career fumble and Heath Johnson had a fumble forced and eight tackles.