By Mark Turner
White County News
The White County Warriors are hoping to find the winning formula this week as they host the Pickens Dragons in the Region 6-AAA opener at Warrior Stadium Friday night in Cleveland
The region matchup end Homecoming Week for the WCHS students, and nothing would make the week better than for the Warriors to break the season-opening three-game losing streak.
The Warriors have battled adversity, injuries and growing pains during the the first three games of the season, and head into the battle with the Dragons with some new energy thanks to the return of a few injured players.
Gaines Clark and Mikey Moreno will rejoin the team this week, and there's an outside chance that Jackson Krilla may make his 2025 debut as well.
“Gaines has practiced both days this week and he's looked good,” WCHS head coach Chad Bennett said. “We are pretty confident that he will be ready to play Friday night. Mikey practiced on Monday, but he was sick yesterday, but he looked good Monday and we're excited to get him back too. Jackson will find on Thursday if he's able to play; he's getting close to being ready too.”
The Warriors and the Dragons have a long history on the football field, having played 50 times over the years. The Warriors hold a 26-22-2 advantage, including last year's 24-7 win in Jasper.
The Dragons are off to a great start this season, with three consecutive wins over Pepperell (28-20), Sornoraville (34-14) and Gilmer (38-24), so Bennett knows his team will have their hands full in the quest for the team's first win of the season.
“Pickens is a really good football team,” Bennett said. “We've played some good teams this year so far, two of them are undefeated (Rabun County and East Jackson) and Habersham is pretty good too, so we're used to playing good teams. Pickens is really good offensively. They have a good quarterback that can throw it and run. They have a good receiver in McCord Purdy, that's big and athletic, and they have two good running backs and some good linemen. Defensively, they look a lot different this year. They are blitzing and stunting a lot more up front and doing some different things in the secondary. It's going to be a huge challenge for us, we'll have to play our best game to have a chance to compete and win.”
Last week, the Warriors dropped a 31-0 loss on the road to East Jackson. The game was much more competitive than the final score indicates as the the game was tied 0-0 last in the second quarter, before the Eagles scored a touchdown in the final final minute of the half to take a 7-0 lead in halftime.
The Warriors, who are having to play a lot of players on both sides of the ball due to injuries, and the lack of depth showed up in the third quarter as East Jackson scored three times to blow the game open.
The Warriors are still trying to find some traction on the offensive side after managing just 119 total yards last week, but should get a big boost with the return of Clark, the team's top receiver last fall. Krilla also adds talent to the receiver group, and Moreno provides another much-needed lineman upfront. The Warriors did get some bad news on the injury front as freshman running back Jack Clark is out for the season due to a knee injury.
“Getting Gaines, Mikey, and possibly, Jackson back will help us,” Bennett said. “Gaines is an experienced guy, he's started for two years and he knows the offensive inside out. He'll give us a dynamic playmaker. It's big to get Mikey back. You can never have enough linemen. He had a great summer and having a good fall when he got hurt, so we're excited to get him back. He can play guard and center on offense and he'll play on the defensive line. Jackson will give us another weapon on offense when he gets back. He's a big tall kid. He'll help us at safety on defense as well.”
In the loss to East Jackson, the Warriors defense played extremely well during the first half, effectively shutting down the Eagles' offense, which was averaging 33 points per game.
“We threw a shutout until 35 seconds left in the first half. East Jackson made a big play,” Bennett said. “Their receiver just went up and got the ball. I thought the defense played really well most of the night. In the second half, it came down to a couple of big plays for them.”
Reid Penrose set the Warriors up for an early scoring chance on the Eagles' first possession, picking off his second pass of the season. Penrose tied for the team honor in total tackles with nine, including six first hits.
Josiah Williams made a big impact on the defensive line, finishing with nine total tackles, that including four tackles for loss. Casey Crane had eight total tackles, including a tackle for loss, Branson Smith had seven total tackles, and Easton Drew was in on six tackles.
Noel Lammers, John Jarrard and James Hart each had four tackles, Zay Cheek added three, and Savion Anderson, Jack Johnson, Kody Tuhey, Zach Godfrey, Jaxin Hoosline and Matt Turner each had two tackles.
“Our guys played extremely hard,” Bennett said. “I can't fault the effort. The guys emptied the tank and some of them we about had to carry them off the field. Some of the guys played 120, 130 snaps. They gave us all they had, so we definitely can't complain about the effort.”
On offense, quarterback Alex Freeman was 10-of-21 for 66 yards. Godfrey had four catches for 37 yards, Penrose had two catches for 19 yards, Lammers had two for nine yards, and Anderson and Jarrard each had a catch.
Lammers had 43 yards on eight rushes, with Anderson adding 13 yards on six carries. Johnathan Shipp (11), Chris Nunnally (9) and Lane Bray (5) also added rushing yards in the fourth quarter. The team's rushing total was also negatively impacted by five East Jackson sacks as Freeman was dropped for -28 yards.
“I proud myself on being an offensive coach; it's what I've been my entire life,” Bennett said. “This is very frustrating. We just have to keep working and do all of the little things better. I heard (Clemson head coach) Dabo Swinney talk about precision. We need to be more precise in everything we do."