Whiteland has overcome enough obstacles during this injury-riddled season that falling behind a couple of times at rival Greenwood wasn’t going to cause widespread panic.
The Warriors just kept pushing forward, and in the end they did what needed to be done.
Landen Wood scored from 5 yards out on his lone carry of the game with 2:26 left, the decisive word in a back-and-forth affair that ended in a 42-28 Whiteland victory on a misty Friday night.
“I told the kids it’s a good thing it’s not gymnastics,” Warriors coach Darrin Fisher said. “They don’t judge ’em; they just count ’em.”
Greenwood (2-7, 1-6 Mid-State) had forced the fourth tie of the evening when Brock Riddle completed a 7-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Pringle on fourth and goal with 8:02 remaining. But the Warriors (5-3, 4-3) came back with a 10-play, 69-yard march that ended with seven consecutive runs, the last a sweep to the left by Wood.
A last-ditch effort by the Woodmen to force overtime or win it ended with a Quinn Warweg interception, and Whiteland iced it on the next snap with a 54-yard TD run by Peyton Emberton, who finished the night with 182 yards on 18 carries.
“We just kept giving them opportunity, opportunity, opportunity,” Greenwood coach Mike Campbell said, “and those opportunities, eventually, they cashed in.”
The Woodmen ate up nearly seven minutes to start the game, embarking on a deliberate 14-play, 76-yard march. Riddle completed all four of his passes on the drive, three of them to convert third downs, setting up a 10-yard touchdown run by Noah Apgar.
Whiteland needed all of one play to respond. After a solid kickoff return by Ethan Tanner, Warweg took a handoff and broke loose up the left sideline for a 60-yard scoring run.
The Warriors then forced a Greenwood punt but fumbled the ball away at their own 25, with Scott Raker recovering for the Woodmen. That set up a quick three-play scoring drive, with Gavin Ruppert’s 14-yard run setting the stage for Apgar to push it in from the 5 with 35.1 seconds to go in the first quarter.
Tanner gave the visitors a much-needed momentum shift when he intercepted a Riddle pass and ran it back 40 yards to the Greenwood 19. From there, Kevin Denham connected with Gunnar Hicks in the front left corner of the end zone to tie the game back up at 14-14. Unbowed, the Woodmen punched right back, riding the ground game upfield to regain the lead. Apgar got his third TD of the half, this one from 7 yards out, with 6:07 remaining in the second period.
The back-and-forth continued as Whiteland answered with a seven-play, 80-yard drive. Emberton did the bulk of the work, carrying five times for 60 yards and capping the possession off from the 32 when he took a pitch and darted up the right sideline for the touchdown. The Warriors then forced a punt and moved into Greenwood territory in the final seconds, but they couldn’t put the go-ahead points on the board.
Taking the ball to start the third quarter, Whiteland churned up more than nine minutes over the course of 15 plays, getting help from a pair of offsides penalties and a personal foul against the Woodmen along the way. After 10 straight runs to start the period, Denham completed passes on three of the next five plays, putting the Warriors up for the first time when he hit Max Sullivan for a score with 2:56 on the clock.
“We were able to take serve back,” Fisher said. “That was huge. That was a Whiteland football drive.”
Greenwood again countered with a long drive of its own to force yet another tie. Apgar and Ruppert toted the ball on 10 of the 14 plays, but it was Riddle who made the magic happen on fourth and goal, scrambling away from pressure and threading a needle to Pringle with 8:02 left in regulation.
Warweg added 81 yards rushing for the Warriors, while Denham finished 6 of 7 passing for 78 yards. For Greenwood, Ruppert ran for 137 yards and Apgar 86.
The Woodmen travel to East Central next week for the first round of Class 4A sectional play.
“We weren’t very good last week (against Franklin),” Campbell said. “We were much more physical, so we’ll take that moving forward.”
Whiteland gets a needed bye week before hosting Columbus East in a 5A sectional semifinal. For Fisher, this Week 9 win was emblematic of what his banged-up team has done all season.
“I’ve never been prouder of a group of kids,” the coach said. “Adversity strikes every season, but as much adversity as we had in the middle of the season, and just the noise around it all … their ability to double down on preparation, double down on taking care of their body, double down on just getting ready to play ball, I’m really proud of them.”
