WHITEHALL — Whitehall faced a tough challenge even before Friday's game with Montague, as the Vikings were forced to work around a season-ending foot injury to captain and two-way starter Parker Mott that took place at the end of Wednesday's practice.
Perhaps still adjusting to that new reality, it took a half for the Vikings to break out against their archrivals, but once they did the results were remarkable, as they ripped off the final 36 points of a 42-7 victory.
Coach Tony Sigmon heaped credit on Jacob Alger for taking over Mott's starting position on the offensive line as well as Nate Betz for doing so on defense. Betz earned Whitehall's only sack on defense.
"I'm very happy with a lot of things tonight," Sigmon said. "There's still things,
obviously, that we've got to clean up and it's an evolution
over time, but we've had a lot of adversity. I'm just proud of our kids
for overcoming all of it and really having a strong week."
The onslaught started on the final play of the first half. Scrambling to get a play off before halftime, quarterback Camden Thompson ended up doing his trademark moving around in the backfield before finding teammate Hunter Osborne in the end zone for a 15-yard score that gave Whitehall a 14-7 halftime lead.
After Montague (2-2, 2-1 West Michigan Conference Lakes) forced a punt to open the third quarter, the Wildcats caught a bad break when the ball bounced into a blocker on the return unit, and the Vikings (2-2, 2-0 WMC Lakes) recovered. Brock Morningstar scored from 29 yards out on the next play.
"We've
just got to work on coming together when things like
that happen, and not letting one bad mistake turn into 10 bad plays,
because that's kind of what happened," Montague coach Justin Dennett said. "It fell apart real quick in the
second half after we made one bad mistake."
After Morningstar's run made it 21-7, a three-and-out followed, and Goodrich took an option pitch to run for a 43-yard touchdown. Thompson ran in a 25-yard score soon after and the rout was on.
Thompson had four total touchdowns, three on the ground and the big throw to Osborne, and made another key play on the drive that preceded that big throw when he found Ryan Goodrich out of the backfield after a lengthy scramble.
Sigmon cracked after the game that "believe it or not," the Vikings have been working on the "scramble drill" so Thompson's ability to extend plays can be made a positive for Whitehall. The two throws to Goodrich and Osborne were Exhibits A and B of that work.
"We were yelling out all practice on Wednesday, 'Jailbreak,'" Sigmon said. "Part
of our 7-on-7 was, 'Here's the pass
combination. Here's the defense. Jailbreak and go.' We didn't
allow him to throw until four seconds into the
actual play. I think that was part of it. So much
of that stuff, you try to draw it up and it'll never work. That's so much on those kids and not giving
up and playing their hearts out."
It was a team effort offensively for the Vikings, which got 142 offensive yards from Goodrich, 157 from Thompson and big plays from Gavin Craner and Corde Anderson along the way.
It all started up front, though, with Alger and his more experienced teammates.
"Those guys are amazing," Thompson said. "The linemen are amazing. They work
their (butts) off every day. Every single day, they watch
film, they do everything they need to. It was a little slow in the first half, sure, but they just don't stop. They keep going. They're conditioned well. I love those guys.
"Our line knows I'm going to be scrambling around for a little bit, so
they're not getting downfield (which would be a penalty). I think that's a huge part of our game.
It opens up a lot more, especially when things go wrong."
Montague played Ryver Jarka at quarterback the majority of the game, bringing in Eli Petersen mostly in obvious passing situations. Montague's only two pass attempts in the first half came on fourth downs - one completed, one intercepted by Thompson in the end zone. The Viking defense zeroed in on Jarka's running ability and were able to limit him to less than three yards per carry. In all, Montague managed 166 yards of offense.
"They were keying on Ryver," Dennett said. "He's been our guy the last couple weeks and
we knew we'd have
to throw the ball a little bit tonight, and we couldn't. That's just
something we've got to work on. We've got to be less one-dimensional and
be able to throw the
ball in those situations when they're able to take away our run
game."
Montague's lone score, which at the time gave the 'Cats a 7-6 lead, was set up by an acrobatic Fletcher Thommen interception that set up a short field. Thommen ran in a one-yard touchdown on the ensuing drive.
"Fletcher made an incredible play and then he ran the ball well and
scored right after it," Dennett said. "Things were really rolling then and we
thought we were in a good spot. Even before then, we had a couple
good drives that we just couldn't finish."
Both teams have WMC Lakes tests next week, with Montague hitting the road to face a tough Ludington team that toppled Oakridge Friday, while the Vikings host Manistee for homecoming.
Whitehall will be focused on continuing its conference success as it will now be expected to take a run at a fourth straight league championship.
"I don't care who you play, but when you start
out 1-2, I think that's something where people are
like, 'What's the identity? How good are these guys? What does that all mean?'" Sigmon said. "On top of that, to have an injury to
our captain late on Wednesday, it was a lot for us to
overcome, but this is a special group and it was able to do that
tonight."
