White House 43, Springfield 7 (9/12/08)

The White House Blue Devils bounced back in a big way with a 43-7 victory at Springfield in week three, shutting down the Yellow Jacket offense to a standstill in the first half.

Coming off a loss to Alcoa, White House (2-1) had one of statistically best-ever efforts on defense in the opening two quarters, rolling to a 36-0 lead at the half on seven straight three-and-outs. That impressive stat included one turnover, five yards allowed on 21 plays, six punts and eight plays for negative yardage.

Matt Parker scored all three times he touched the football, twice on long passes from Trox Greenwade and Aussie Light, and on a 20-yard interception return. He had two catches for 119 yards, five tackles (four for loss) and an interception in just over a half.

“I just thought we made some plays in the passing game and created a lot of energy on our side of the football in the first half,” said White House coach Jeff Porter. “Our defense did a great job of stringing things out and was able to create short fields for us.

“I just hope that whatever we did, we improved from last week and we will have to go back and evaluate the film and see. We had an up and down week and really didn’t know what to expect tonight.”

DeMarqus Payne fumbled on the opening possession, with Springfield taking over at the White House 30, but the Blue Devils forced the first of seven three and outs, allowing just five yards of total offense, six punts and zero first downs by Springfield in the opening half.

Trox Greenwade found a striding Matt Parker on the first play after the punt for an 80-yard touchdown strike and a 7-0 lead with 8:25 left in the first quarter after Matthew Gossett’s PAT.

Greenwade was intercepted by Jamel Smith at the Springfield 40 on the Blue Devils third possession, but Bryan Dixon returned a punt 35 yards to set up the second score. He plunged an 11-yard run into the endzone and DeMarqus Payne ran the two-point conversion for a 15-0 lead with two minutes left in the first.

Dixon’s second big punt return was on the first play of the second quarter, this time going 30 yards before Payne scored from three yards out. Andy James caught the two-point pass from Aussie Light for a 23-0 edge.

Chad Neal caught a 37-yard strike from Greenwade to set up the fourth touchdown, as Payne took it in from five yards out. Gossett missed the PAT wide left for a 29-0 margin. Parker scored his second touchdown of the night on defense, intercepting Tyler Campbell on a sideline roll at the 20-yard-line and returning it cross field for the short interception run to paydirt. Gossett added the PAT for 36-0 lead at the intermission.

Parker scored from 39 yards out in the third quarter on a third down pass play from Light, and Springfield broke the shutout in the fourth quarter when Shaquille Sharkley rambled in from 32 yards and Tyler Pridemore kicked the extra point. Tyler Pitt kicked the final PAT for the Blue Devils for his first career point.

Payne rushed nine times for 54 yards and two touchdowns and Greenwade was 2-of-3 passing for 117 yards with one score and one pass picked off. Cody Allen added five carries for 16 yards.

“I think this is going to be a team that is going to give a good effort every Friday night, but we have to come back, study hard to where we can improve and continue to get better each week,” Porter said.

White House travels to Macon County for its first Region 4-3A contest of the year Friday, but the Tigers come in 1-3 with a region win already over the Pearl-Cohn Firebirds. Region 4-3A is seemingly upside down with Macon and DeKalb County leading the pack.

White House lost 24-17 on its last trip to Lafayette in 2006.

Box Score (Final)

White House vs Springfield (09-12-2008 at Springfield, TN)

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score

----------------- -- -- -- -- -----

White House......... 15 21 7 0 - 43 Record: (2-1)
Springfield......... 0 0 0 7 - 7 Record: (0-4,0-1)

Scoring Summary:

1st 08:25 WH - Matt Parker 80 yd pass from Trox Greenwade (Matthew Gossett kick), 1-80 0:16, WH 7 - SPRING 0

02:00 WH - Bryan Dixon 11 yd run (DeMarqus Payne rush), 2-23 0:32, WH 15 - SPRING 0

2nd 10:05 WH - DeMarqus Payne 3 yd run (Andy James pass), 4-27 1:40, WH 23 - SPRING 0

06:30 WH - DeMarqus Payne 5 yd run (Matthew Gossett kick failed), 4-50 1:39, WH 29 - SPRING 0

04:52 WH - Matt Parker 20 yd interception return (Matthew Gossett kick), , WH 36 - SPRING 0

3rd 02:38 WH - Matt Parker 39 yd pass from Aussie Light (Tyler Pitt kick), 5-45 5:22, WH 43 - SPRING 0

4th 10:47 SPRING - Shaquille Sharkley 32 yd run (Tyler Pridemore kick), 5-62 3:44, WH 43 - SPRING 7

WH SPRING

FIRST DOWNS................... 12 4

RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 30-119 28-89

PASSING YDS (NET)............. 156 0

Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 4-3-1 5-0-1

TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 34-275 33-89

Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0

Punt Returns-Yards............ 4-71 0-0

Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 2-29 4-74

Interception Returns-Yards.... 1-20 1-0

Punts (Number-Avg)............ 1-36.0 8-34.9

Fumbles-Lost.................. 3-1 2-0

Penalties-Yards............... 5-30 5-42

Possession Time............... 22:49 24:01

Third-Down Conversions........ 3 of 5 0 of 9

Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 0 0 of 0

Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 3-3 0-0

Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 1-5 1-10

RUSHING: White House-DeMarqus Payne 9-54; Bryan Dixon 4-26; Cody Hall 4-23;

Cody Allen 5-16; Chris Bolton 2-7; Cody Adair 1-4; Aussie Light 2-3; Donovan

Jackson 1-minus 2; Trox Greenwade 2-minus 12. Springfield-Shaquille Sharkley

7-44; Ernest Wallace 2-23; Tyler Campbell 5-23; Elton Thompkins 8-4;

Martelle Black 2-2; Cody Wilbur 3-minus 1; D.J. Williams 1-minus 6.

PASSING: White House-Trox Greenwade 2-3-1-117; Aussie Light 1-1-0-39.

Springfield-Tyler Campbell 0-5-1-0.

RECEIVING: White House-Matt Parker 2-119; Chad Neal 1-37. Springfield-.

INTERCEPTIONS: White House-Matt Parker 1-20. Springfield-Jamel Smith 1-0.

FUMBLES: White House-Trox Greenwade 1-0; DeMarqus Payne 1-1; Cody Adair 1-0.

Springfield-Ernest Wallace 1-0; Martelle Black 1-0.

SACKS (UA-A): White House-Zach Duty 1-0. Springfield-Lincoln Cruz 1-0.