Dalton Hughes (3) has helped Whiteland’s defense shut out Franklin twice this season.
Whiteland football coach Darrin Fisher has effusively praised his defense all season long, and he has kept coming back to the same four words when describing that unit’s strengths:
“The courage to hit.”
The Warriors’ ability to stop opposing offenses, though, goes far deeper than that team-wide physicality. Plenty of football players like to hit hard, but not all of them consistently put themselves in the right position to deliver those hits at the right time.
With very few exceptions, these guys have.
One key has been experience; Whiteland has 30 seniors, several of whom have been playing prominent roles since their sophomore year. Another big one has been versatility — coach Darrin Fisher stressed being able to play multiple positions during the preseason, and it’s paid dividends. A number of Warriors, including the team’s top two tacklers in Brady Stanifer (95 stops) and Dalton Hughes (73), have seen action on all three levels of the defense at different times.
“I think it’s real important for all of us to play wherever we need,” Hughes said, “because a big thing with us is we like different packages. … It just helps us play better football if everybody knows exactly what position and what you need to do in that position. We have tests every week on not just our position, but everything on the field, and it helps us all, because even if you’re a person who’s never going to get into that position, you can still help somebody who’s struggling who does play that position.”
So far, the formula has been working. The Class 5A No. 2 Warriors have yielded just three points in the postseason and have held eight of their 11 opponents to 14 points or less — including two shutout wins over eighth-ranked Franklin, the second coming in last week’s sectional title game.
The lone bump in the road came in the middle of the season, when Whiteland gave up 23 points against an inferior Perry Meridian team and 35 in an upset loss at Martinsville — the lone blemish on the team’s record.
“We did not put in a full week of practice to beat somebody,” Fisher said. “We went a couple of weeks there where — the week of Perry Meridian, we didn’t practice well, and we went into the week of Martinsville and we did not practice well. … We did not prepare with the kind of intensity and focus that needs to happen in order to win football games.”
Since then, it’s been a different story. Though Whiteland also surrendered 30 points the following week against Mooresville, Fisher could live with that effort; the Warriors happily traded touchdowns for field goals against the potent Pioneers in the first half, and the two second-half TDs they did give up came after the game was well in hand.
“At some point throughout a season, you need to face that type of adversity,” Stanifer said of the Martinsville loss. “I think it’s good that we got it out of the way whenever we did. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”
The defense has kept opponents in check throughout October and November, yielding just 31 points over four games. One of the victims during the current stretch of dominance was tonight’s regional opponent, Plainfield. Whiteland handed the Quakers a 45-14 defeat five weeks ago, but nobody on the team is taking anything for granted in the rematch.
“All you’ve got to do is watch the tape,” Fisher said. “Our kids already know. They’ve watched the tape and they’ve said, ‘Man, Plainfield is really good. They’re playing really well.’ … Our kids don’t need to be humbled again. They are humble right now. They are humble enough to know that if they don’t bring everything they’ve got every single day, that the season could be over with. They understand that, they know that, and they’re going to prepare so that doesn’t happen.”
“Whenever you’re playing a team two times in a year, it’s hard to stop them twice,” Stanifer added. They’re going to have adjustments for us while they’re on offense, and our defense is going to have adjustments for them too, so going out there and seeing who comes out on top is going to be fun.”
Defense has generally been pretty fun for the Warriors this fall. The combination of a veteran group of players and strong game planning — Fisher credits defensive coordinator John Preston and fellow assistants Zach Rudolf, Gunnar Ranard, Tom Carpenter and Trevor Reese with setting the tone — has been a tough one for opponents to overcome.
The hope is that it’ll be able to power Whiteland to its first semistate appearance of the 21st century, and perhaps more.
“We’re not invicible,” Hughes said, “but when we come together, we’re pretty darn close — when we all play for each other and not just ourselves.”
TONIGHT’S REGIONAL MATCHUPS
6A: Warren Central at Center Grove, 7 p.m.
5A: Plainfield at Whiteland, 7 p.m.
4A: New Palestine at Roncalli, 7 p.m.
