Dark night vs. White County
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Two White County plays and four minutes later, the contest had turned into another long night for the home team.
The Warriors scored on their first two offensive plays, building a 14-0 lead that would eventual swell to a 30-7 Pioneer loss.
“We felt like we had a shot at this game, and we came out very flat,” said head coach Chris Madewell, whose team dropped to 0-4. “We let them jump on us very early in the game, and just never seemed to recover from that.”
After taking the opening kickoff, the Pioneers fumbled the ball away on third down, and White County jumped at the chance to take over on offense when J.J. Taylor ran a reverse 37 yards for the Warriors’ first touchdown.
“We were expecting it,” Madewell said of Sparta’s first play, “we just didn’t stay at home on the back side on the reverse. We’ve got to cut that out; we can’t allow teams to score on their first series every game, because it’s so hard to come back from.”
The Pioneers’ second drive ended when Joshua Paz was intercepted by the Warriors’ Bryan Simmons, and on White County’s first-down play quarterback Cory Crain streaked 49 yards on an option run.
“Maybe we were a little over-confident,” Madewell noted, “but we just weren’t prepared to come out and do what we were supposed to do.”
Turnovers ended two Warrior drives as the first half played on, and the Warriors missed a 32-yard field goal just before intermission and took a 14-0 lead into halftime.
Feeling they were still very much in the contest with their neighboring rivals, the Pioneers’ confidence took another big hit when Taylor returned the third quarter’s opening kickoff 80 yards. Heath Crisp made a touchdown-saving tackle at the 4, but two plays later Crain dove in from the 2-yard line to make it a 21-0 game.
“We drove the ball several times in the first half, but then we’d shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers,” Madewell said.
“We felt like we could still come out after halftime and win, the attitude in the locker room was still fairly positive we could do it — but we came out and they had a big play on us, that kind of took the wind out of us.”
Warren County handed their guests two more points midway through the third, when a bad snap on a punt attempt from deep in Pioneer territory led to a safety. The ensuing free kick was fumbled by the Warriors, and recovered by Eli Smith, but Pioneer QB Nick Cantrell was intercepted on the very next WCHS play.
The Warriors took over at their own 15, but drove to the end zone on a drive which took more than four minutes off the clock and ended with Crain connecting with Billy Baker on a 43-yard touchdown pass.
White County cleared its bench, and the Pioneers turned in their only successful drive in the closing minutes of the contest. A 21-yard pass from Paz to Jon Creek helped move the ball downfield, and an 18-yard Paz run set the stage for Jevon Ramsey, who went in from the 5-yard line to help the Pioneers avoid the shutout.
Ramsey, who had missed the team’s two previous games with a knee injury, was Warren County’s leading rusher with 63 yards on 13 carries. The Pioneers rushed for 102 yards on the night, while Cantrell and Paz combined for 117 passing yards.
Crain led the Warriors with 52 rushing yards on just five carries. The Warriors were limited to 234 yards of offense, but took advantage of six Warren County turnovers on the way to the win, which upped their record to 2-2.
“The one thing that really disappointed me was the sloppiness I saw,” Madewell said of his team’s effort. “I felt like in our first three games we weren’t that sloppy. Even though we didn’t win, and the score wasn’t very good, we at least looked sharp and didn’t have as messy and as ugly a game as it was (Friday) night.
“This was kind of a step backward. We’ve got to come out this week, work hard, and start moving forward again.”
The Pioneers return to Region 3-5A action next Friday, when they play host to Cookeville.