White House dominates
Tigers for Region 4-3A victory
By Luke Williams
Connection Sports
The White House Blue Devils made a definitive statement to begin the 2008 Region 4-3A campaign,
going on the road to Macon County
for a 38-6 victory Friday night.
With the White House defense throwing a second straight shutout for three quarters (allowing the only touchdown in
the fourth), the Blue Devils (3-1, 1-0) responded on offense with methodical scoring drives and efficiency in the red zone.
Junior quarterback Trox Greenwade completed 7-of-13 passes for 122 yards and two touchdowns, hitting Zach Duty and Chad Neal
each in the first half for the two-score lead at the break of 14-0.
Macon County (1-4, 1-1) opened the third period with an onside kick that was touched before it went
10 yards, and White House turned it into a 25-yard field goal and eventually built a 24-0 edge before the Tigers found the
endzone.
The win avenged a sour trip
to Lafayette
in 2006 when Macon Count broke a long losing streak with a 24-17 victory at home. This time, White House won its second straight.
“Two years ago was on everyone’s
mind,” said White House head coach Jeff Porter. “Our kids recognized the importance of winning this region game
and I thought we got better as the game went along. As coaches, you are never satisfied and I hope our kids are never satisfied
and continue to work and improve.”
In a methodical first half with few series, White House jumped on the board first after two Macon County punts. Greenwade
found Matt Parker for 35 yards on 3rd-and-4 to set up a second down touchdown pass of 15 yards to Duty, with Gossett
adding the PAT for a 7-0 lead with 34 seconds left in the first quarter.
There were only two drives in the whole second quarter as Macon County burned seven minutes off the clock on a 13-play march inside Blue Devils territory.
But when quarterback Kyle Grace connected with Brian Trask for seven yards, Trask was pummeled by Parker and the ball came
loose, bouncing to Duty at the White House 24.
The B.D.P. boys responded with a five-minute series of their own, moving 11 plays and 76 yards including
a 27-yard draw by Bryan Dixon. On second and goal from the nine, Greenwade found Neal in the corner of the endzone and Gossett
added the kick for a 14-0 lead at the intermission.
“That was the turning point of the game,” said Porter. “Macon is looking at a possible tying score
and we end up causing the football and going up by two scores. The offense did a good job with the clock in the final two
minutes of the half.
“The
execution has been the positive of our offense this year. We have been able to get points when we get down there (red zone).”
The Blue Devils dropped a potential touchdown
pass on the first series of the third quarter after the Tigers failed at the onside kick, but Gossett made the field goal
county for a 17-0 advantage. Macon County switched from its direct running attack to a spread style offense in the third,
and as a result moved to the White House 41 – but Grace was incomplete on fourth down to turn it back over.
Dixon busted for 34 yards on the first play and then finished the drive three plays later with a three-yard
dive into the endzone for a 24-0 edge.
“I really liked their game plan tonight,” Coach Porter noted. “I thought their coaching
staff gave their kids a very good plan to eat the clock and keep the ball away from us.”
Grace was 7-of-11 passing for 103 yards and finally
put the Tigers in the endzone to start the fourth quarter after the teams exchanged turnovers (a Macon fumble and White House
interception). The five-play, 64-yard drive ended with Grace hitting Trask for 15 yards, but Trask was swarmed on the PAT
when the snap failed.
White
House extended the lead to 31-6 in the fourth when Macon County botched a punt return and Matt Parker picked up his second fumble recovery of the game. He actually
ran it in for the touchdown, but under the rules, the play was whistled dead at the Macon County 40.
Greenwade scored on a quarterback sneak on the seventh
play to cash in the mistake. Later in the fourth, Cody Adair scored his first career touchdown with a 46 yard run to cap the
scoring at 38-6.
White House forced four turnovers
and overcame an onside kick attempt, scoring on four of the five drives after those Macon County mistakes.
“I thought we played hard and our defense played well,” Porter said. “We were able to
force some third downs in the first half even though they converted. The biggest thing is, we were able to hit and cause some
turnovers and scoring four times after it was the telling stat of the game.”
Dixon led all rushers
with 10 carries for 93 yards and DeMarqus Payne was workmanlike with 16 totes for 87 yards. Parker, Duty and Neal all caught
two passes each. Parker and Cody Allen led the defense with eight tackles each, followed by Zack Byrd with seven and Walter
Draper with five. Parker also forced two fumbles as well as the two he recovered. Cole Elrod had his first career interception.
White House comes back home for three straight
weeks, hosting undefeated Beech in week five at Dewey H. Whitson Stadium.
Box Score (Final)
White House vs Macon County (09-19-2008 at Lafayette, TN)
Score by Quarters 1
2 3 4 Score
-----------------
-- -- -- -- -----
White House......... 7 7 10 14
- 38 Record: (3-1,1-0)
Macon County........ 0 0 0 6
- 6 Record: (1-4,1-1)
Scoring Summary:
1st 00:34 WH - Zach Duty
15 yd pass from Trox Greenwade (Matthew Gossett kick), 5-63 2:06, WH 7 - MACON 0
2nd 00:15 WH - Chad Neal 9 yd pass from Trox Greenwade (Matthew Gossett kick), 11-76 5:17, WH 14 - MACON 0
3rd 08:06 WH - Matthew Gossett
25 yd field goal, 9-38 0:00, WH 17 - MACON 0
01:38 WH - Bryan Dixon 3 yd run (Matthew Gossett kick), 5-59 2:08, WH 24 - MACON 0
4th 10:17 MACON - Brian Trask 15 yd pass from Kyle Grace
(Brian Trask rush failed), 5-64 2:08, WH 24 - MACON 6
03:53 WH - Trox Greenwade 1 yd run (Matthew Gossett kick), 7-40 4:13, WH 31 - MACON 6
00:11 WH - Cody Adair
46 yd run (Matthew Gossett kick), 4-52 2:20, WH 38 - MACON 6
WH MACON
FIRST DOWNS................... 15
11
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 40-273 29-106
PASSING YDS (NET).............
122 124
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 13-7-1
16-8-1
TOTAL
OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 53-395 45-230
Fumble Returns-Yards..........
0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............
0-0 1-0
Kickoff Returns-Yards.........
1-0 5-97
Interception Returns-Yards.... 1-18
1-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 2-46.0 2-37.0
Fumbles-Lost..................
1-0 4-3
Penalties-Yards...............
7-67 4-23
Possession Time............... 26:44
21:16
Third-Down Conversions........ 4 of 9 3
of 8
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 1 of 1 2 of 3
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......
5-5 1-1
Sacks By: Number-Yards........
0-0 0-0
RUSHING: White House-Bryan Dixon 10-93; DeMarqus Payne 16-87; Cody Adair
3-50;
Cody Allen 6-33; Chad Neal 1-7; Cole Elrod 1-2; Trox Greenwade 3-1.
Macon County-Christian Crabtree 8-51; Max Manion 8-29; Kyle
Grace 7-28;
Allen Whitaker 3-4; Cody Ray 3-minus 6.
PASSING: White House-Trox Greenwade 7-13-1-122. Macon County-Kyle Grace
7-11-0-103;
Dallas Grace
1-5-1-21.
RECEIVING:
White House-Matt Parker 2-65; Zach Duty 2-30; Chad Neal 2-14;
DeMarrius Payne 1-13. Macon County-Lance Reid 4-47; Brian Trask 2-33; Tyler
Manning
1-41; Cody Ray 1-3.
INTERCEPTIONS: White House-Cole Elrod 1-18. Macon County-Lance Reid 1-0.
FUMBLES: White House-Trox Greenwade 1-0. Macon County-Christian Crabtree
2-2; Brian
Trask 1-1; Cody Ray 1-0.
