Blue Devils dominate
Firebirds to remain unbeaten in Region 4-3A
By Luke Williams
Connection Sports
It’s difficult to get overlooked scoring four touchdowns for the second week in a row. But
for White House senior tailback DeMarqus Payne, he’s just mixed into a bag of consistency for the Blue Devils which
played super as a team unit.
Payne
has 10 touchdowns in the last three weeks including four again Friday night as White House dropped Pearl-Cohn, 44-8, in front
of a live television audience watching across Middle Tennessee on Comcast.
Payne rushed 10 times for 123 yards and scored three touchdowns on the ground and one through the
air, but the big plays and consistency was everywhere across the roster as the Blue Devils built a demanding lead and never
looked back. Bryan Dixon had a 47-yard punt return and a 45-yard interception return; Trox Greenwade passed for two touchdowns
and kicked a 63-yard punt; Matthew Gossett made every kickoff a touchback except for one that traveled one-yard short of the
goalline; and Matt Mosley blocked a punt recovered by DeMarrius Payne.
Pick the star, and it’s easy to leave out Chad Neal’s touchdown catch and pass break-up
to cause an interception, or perhaps Cole Elrod’s picked off pass which bounced out of the hands of the Pearl-Cohn receiver.
Junior linebacker Zack Byrd anchored the defense with nine tackles, holding the Firebirds to 173 yards of total offense on
48 plays – despite having the ball for 32 minutes of the game.
White House improved to 6-1 (3-0) and continued a streak of alternating wins with Pearl-Cohn, with
the series now tied 4-4. But unlike in years past, the Blue Devils are unlikely to meet them in the playoffs as Pearl-Cohn
dropped to 1-7 (0-4).
“We
took some positive steps in the right direction tonight,” said White House head coach Jeff Porter. “We didn’t
lose the intensity tonight that we lost last week. Pearl is a really good defensive team and it’s a seven-point game with two minutes
to go in the first half.
“They
have just been struggling all year and they have laid about 15 or 16 fumbles on the ground and tonight they did not turn it
over. They always do a good job of controlling the football against us. I was really proud of our kids. They respected Pearl-Cohn
and worked hard on the practice field and came out ready to play.”
White House opened the scoring in the first quarter with a four-yard touchdown run by Payne, then
made it 14-0 with a 14-yard jaunt in the second. But that came with just 2:08 left in the second quarter, and the lead was extended
just before the half with excellent time management and a big special teams play.
With Jason Mays lining up to punt at the Pearl-Cohn five-yard-line, Mosley led
a swarm of defenders to swat the kick and DeMarrius Payne picked up the ball at the six. On the second play, Greenwade completed
a 10-yard floater to Payne and Matt Parker caught the two-point pass for a 22-0 halftime lead.
“Going out and getting three defensive plays
in a row and Mosley getting the block; that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night,” Porter said. “Payne
had an incredible run to start the second half and that pretty much sealed everything for us.
“We used two timeouts there and saved one for
the offense (before the blocked punt) and our kids have done a pretty good job with clock management this year. Overall, I
thought the kids had a really good week of practice and prepared for this game.”
Pearl opened the third
quarter with a surprise onside kick but the Blue Devils were waiting and pounced on it. Payne left the locker room and headed
right back to the endzone, scoring on a 55-yard bulldozer run on the first play from scrimmage, and then added the two-point
run for a 30-0 advantage. He scored 26 of the Blue Devils points on the night and leads the team with 76 for the year.
The White House defense forced a three-and-out
and Dixon
returned the punt 47 yards to the Pearl-Cohn 29. Again scoring in seconds, Greenwade hit Chad Neal in the middle of the endzone
on the opening play of the series for a 37-0 edge with Gossett adding his third PAT of the night.
Neal battered Austin Gardenhire at the Blue Devils
29 on a pass across the middle, and the deflection was caught by a diving Elrod to turn over possession again. White House
had a rare three-and-out, but Greenwade punted it 63 yards to the Pearl-Cohn 11 at the end of the third quarter.
“The one advantage we had was the kicking
game and we challenged our kids to win this phase of the game,” Porter said.
Five plays later, Lamar McLaurin was flushed from the pocket and intercepted for
the second time in 16 throws, with Dixon stepping in front of the receiver and darting 45 yards untouched to the endzone for a 44-0 lead
when Tyler Pitt made his third PAT kick of the year.
Pearl-Cohn closed the game with a 13-play, 65-yard drive to run out the clock and ruin the shutout as
McLaurin took advantage of a pass interference penalty to keep the drive alive and dove into the endzone on 3rd-and-8
with 14 seconds to go. He added the two-point run for a 44-8 final, as Ryan O’Neal recovered the onside kick to end
the game.
White House had the ball for
just 33 plays and 215 total yards and only 15 minutes of the clock on offense. White House maintained its perfect record of
scoring in the red zone seven games into the season.
Box Score (Final)
Pearl-Cohn vs White House (10-10-2008
at White House, TN)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
-----------------
-- -- -- -- -----
Pearl-Cohn.......... 0 0 0 8 - 8
Record: (1-7,0-4)
White House......... 7 15 15 7 - 44 Record:
(6-1,3-0)
Scoring Summary:
1st 06:21 WH - DeMarqus Payne 4 yd run (Matthew Gossett kick), 8-47 3:16, PCOHN 0 -
WH 7
2nd 02:08 WH - DeMarqus Payne 14 yd run (Matthew Gossett kick), 4-36 1:09, PCOHN 0 - WH 14
00:22 WH - DeMarqus Payne 10 yd pass from Trox Greenwade (Matt Parker pass), 2-6 0:38, PCOHN 0 - WH 22
3rd 11:40
WH - DeMarqus Payne 55 yd run (DeMarqus Payne rush), 1-55 0:20, PCOHN 0 - WH 30
08:29
WH - Chad Neal 29 yd pass from Trox Greenwade (Matthew Gossett kick), 1-29 0:08, PCOHN 0 - WH 37
4th 09:57 WH
- Bryan Dixon 45 yd interception return (Tyler Pitt kick), , PCOHN 0 - WH 44
00:14 PCOHN
- Lamar McLaurin 8 yd run (Lamar McLaurin rush), 13-65 9:43, PCOHN 8 - WH 44
PCOHN WH
FIRST DOWNS...................
12 11
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 32-71 25-139
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 102 76
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 16-9-2 8-5-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....
48-173 33-215
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0
0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 0-0 2-64
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 1-22 0-0
Interception Returns-Yards....
0-0 2-45
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 6-23.5 2-38.5
Fumbles-Lost.................. 2-0 2-1
Penalties-Yards...............
4-35 2-21
Possession Time............... 32:13 15:47
Third-Down Conversions........ 3 of 9 2 of 6
Fourth-Down Conversions.......
0 of 0 1 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 1-1
3-3
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 1-4 1-5
RUSHING: Pearl-Cohn-Adarious
Burton 15-53; Lamar McLaurin 13-18; Michael
Murray 1-2; R. Slifka 1-minus 1; Daron Garrett 2-minus 1. White
House-DeMarqus Payne 10-123; Cody Allen 3-12; Trox Greenwade 4-3; Bryan
Dixon 8-1.
PASSING: Pearl-Cohn-Lamar McLaurin
9-16-2-102. White House-Trox Greenwade
5-8-0-76.
RECEIVING: Pearl-Cohn-Nick Hill 5-63; Desmond Boykin 1-17; Austin
Gardenhire
1-12; Adarious Burton 1-5; D'vontay Hyde 1-5. White House-Chad Neal 2-48;
Cody Allen
1-13; DeMarqus Payne 1-10; Matt Parker 1-5.
INTERCEPTIONS: Pearl-Cohn-None. White House-Cole Elrod 1-0; Bryan Dixon
1-45.
FUMBLES: Pearl-Cohn-Lamar McLaurin 2-0. White House-Trox Greenwade 1-0; Matt
Parker 1-1.
SACKS (UA-A): Pearl-Cohn-Keyland Owens
1-0. White House-Chris Bolton 1-0.
TACKLES (UA-A): Pearl-Cohn-Keyland
Owens 1-0. White House-Zach Byrd 5-4;
Matt Parker 6-2; Aussie Light 4-1; Chase Neal 2-3; Joey Smith 2-3; Michael
Barrett 1-4; Jonathan Duke 1-3; Bryan Dixon 2-1; DeMarrius Payne 2-1; Ryan
O'Neal 1-2; Chad Neal
2-0; DeMarqus Payne 2-0; Matt Mosley 1-1; Walter
Draper 1-1; Derek Conquest 1-1; Cody Hall 1-0; Chris Bolton 1-0;
Zach
Meadows 1-0; Alfredo Louis 1-0; Blaine Boone 1-0; Cole Elrod 1-0; Travis
Brown 1-0; Zach Duty
0-1; Kody Littles 0-1.
SACKS (UA-A): Pearl-Cohn-Keyland
Owens 1-0. White House-Chris Bolton 1-0.
TACKLES (UA-A): Pearl-Cohn-Keyland
Owens 1-0. White House-Zach Byrd 5-4;
Matt Parker 6-2; Aussie Light 4-1; Chase Neal 2-3; Joey Smith 2-3; Michael
Barrett 1-4; Jonathan Duke 1-3; Bryan Dixon 2-1; DeMarrius Payne 2-1; Ryan
O'Neal 1-2; Chad Neal
2-0; DeMarqus Payne 2-0; Matt Mosley 1-1; Walter
Draper 1-1; Derek Conquest 1-1; Cody Hall 1-0; Chris Bolton 1-0;
Zach
Meadows 1-0; Alfredo Louis 1-0; Blaine Boone 1-0; Cole Elrod 1-0; Travis
Brown 1-0; Zach Duty
0-1; Kody Littles 0-1.
