Whiteville High running back Tyson Wilcox carries the ball for first -down yardage in the Wolfpack’s 34-0 football victory over Red Springs Friday night at Legion Stadium. Gibson Hooker is the Red Springs defender on the play.

Staff photo by Mark Gilchrist

Mark Little
WHS head coach

By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

First-half woes continued for the Whiteville Wolfpack Friday night as it managed to hold a 7-0 lead at the midway point against a overmatched Red Springs Red Devil team.

But a 20-point explosion in the third quarter sent the Wolfpack well on its way to a 34-0 shutout over the Robeson County team.

“In all three of our games so far, we have had problems coming out and getting ourselves established. Tonight, it was turnovers, penalties and mental mistakes that hurt us early on.

“We can’t continue to have those problems. We have to get a lot more consistency in our game.”

The Wolfpack improved its record to 2-1 while Red Springs slipped to 0-3.

The victory marked the seventh straight year that WHS has won its home opener.

Red Springs head coach Clay Jernigan, a native of Tabor City, said that youth and inexperience are his team’s major drawbacks.

“We’ve given everybody a good a pretty good battle in the first half, but we’re just so young right now,” Jernigan said. “We don’t have a lot of the maturity we need to take it all through four quarters.”

Whiteville lost three fumbles and had a pass intercepted in the first half. The Wolfpack was also hindered by 55 yards in penalties during the first two quarters.

The WHS defense held Red Springs to 44 yards of total offense and three first downs.

The only score of the first half came early in the second quarter when senior running back Jarrod McKinney scored on an eight-yard run. McKinney, who rushed for 140 yards on 18 carries for the evening, had earlier helped set up he score with a 57-yard run.

Another WHS scoring opportunity in the second quarter was squelched when McKinney fumbled the ball away at the 12-yard line.

Red Springs opened the second half with an attempt of an onside kick, but Whiteville’s Davion Godfrey came up with ball at the WHS 49. The Wolfpack then moved the ball 51 yards in seven plays. A 26-yard power thrust carry by fullback Josh Lennon was the big play of the drive. Tyson Wilcox got the touchdown on a four-yard run with 8 minutes, 53 seconds left in the third quarter. Zack Stanley’s second straight extra point kick made the score 14-3.

Whiteville got its next score less that two minute later after recovering a fumble at the Red Springs 29. Lennon plowed over from three-yard line and Stanley kicked the PAT for a 21-0 edge with 7:12 left in the third quarter.

After the WHS defense stopped the Red Devils on fourth down at the Whiteville 44, the Wolfpack drove for its fourth touchdown. A 29-yard pass from back-up quarterback Beret Proctor to Edward Brown gave WHS the ball at the five-yard line to set up a one-yard TD run by McKinney. The PAT attempt was blocked,

Whiteville’s final scoring drive the night covered 93 yards and took 12 plays. Anthony Bradford, George Spearman, Dequan Thompson, Julian Thomas and Shaq Davis all had carries on the drive. The touchdown came on 19-yard sweep by Thompson with 5:31 left in the game.

Wilcox joined McKinney in surpassing the 100-yard rushing mark, finishing with 125 yards on 11 carries.

Lennon, Jimmy Wright, Chris Ward, Jonathan Norris, Zack Williams and D.J. Phillips helped pace the WHS defense as the Wolfpack defense switched from a four-man front to a five-man front during the past week.

Whiteville will travel to play longtime rival West Columbus this Friday night.

W - Jarrod McKinney 8 run (Zack Stanley kick).
W - Tyson Wilcox 4 run (Stanley kick).
W - Josh Lennon 3 run (Stanley kick).
W - McKinney 1 run (kick blocked).
W - Dequan Thompson 19 run (Stanley kick).