Whiteland’s Slate Valentine, right, gets away from a diving Greenwood defender to score a touchdown during Friday’s game.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
If you’re going to beat a Darrin Fisher-coached team in October, you’d better make sure you close the deal.
Greenwood did almost everything it needed to do on Friday night to knock off Whiteland for the first time since 2017, putting itself 3 yards away from the winning touchdown with 20 seconds remaining. But a fumble on the next snap was recovered by Warrior lineman Scott Harden with 16.5 seconds left in the game, allowing Fisher’s squad to slither away with a 28-24 road win.
“Our entire last month has been about, just win the moment,” Fisher said after his team’s 15th consecutive October triumph. “Don’t worry about the scoreboard, don’t worry about anything — just play as hard as you can possibly play for that moment. And … we won one more moment than they did today.”
Down 24-14 after Kyrin York’s field goal early in the third quarter, the Warriors (5-4, 4-3 Mid-State) crept back bit by bit.
They quickly got into Greenwood territory when Ollie Taylor hooked up with Andrian Kolleigbo for a 30-yard completion. Penalties then wiped out consecutive would-be touchdown runs for the Warriors, but they were able to respond with a third-down conversion that set up first and goal at the 5, and Slate Valentine collected his third rushing touchdown from there to cut the deficit to three.
Kolleigbo then came up with a huge defensive play, ending a promising Greenwood drive by wrestling a Brock Riddle pass away from a receiver in the red zone. Whiteland then got across midfield when Gunnar Hicks gained 25 yards on a fake punt, but the Woodmen held from there and the Warriors had to kick the ball away as the fourth quarter began.
Then, the Warriors appeared to pick off Riddle again, but the turnover was wiped out by a flag for roughing the passer. Given new life, Greenwood drove down to the Warrior 25, but Riddle’s fourth-down throw to the end zone just overshot Amare Middleton, and Whiteland took over with 6:50 left.
Valentine, who finished with 141 yards rushing on 22 attempts, did the heavy lifting on the Warriors’ go-ahead march, carrying on four of the last five plays for a total of 53 yards. The last of those, from 25 yards out, gave Whiteland its only lead of the night — but the only one it needed.
But Greenwood (4-5, 2-5) wasn’t done. Riddle converted a pair of fourth downs with quarterback keepers, and in the final half minute he heaved a ball up for Middleton, who made an incredible leaping grab in double coverage to put his team on the doorstep of victory. Momentum had rapidly shifted back toward the home side.
And then, in a flash, Harden gobbled it up.
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Fisher said. “They just kept playing. It would have been easy to get down after that great catch down here at the 3-yard line, but (defensive coordinator John) Preston asked them, ‘Do you believe in yourselves? Because I believe in you.’ And then there was the play.”
The Woodmen wasted little time in making last week’s offensive struggles a thing of the past. After Will Riley returned the opening kickoff all the way to the Whiteland 47-yard line, Riddle completed two straight passes to Middleton (six catches, 169 yards), the second one covering 32 yards to the Warrior 11. Greenwood went the rest of the way on the ground, with Alan Burnett punching it in from 2 yards out with 9:23 left in the first period.
Whiteland answered back with a nine-play, 56-yard drive, staying with the run the whole way. The Greenwood defense forced a fourth down, but in need of 2 yards, Valentine went up the middle untouched for a 26-yard touchdown run that tied the score at the 4:36 mark.
Riddle went deep again to Middleton two plays later, with the wideout pulling in the pass and breaking a tackle but just grazing the sideline at the Whiteland 10 after a 67-yard gain. On the next snap, Gunner Ruppert took the handoff and manage to dive across the goal line.
Greenwood got a defensive stop and had a chance to extend its lead, but a personal foul penalty near midfield stopped the progress of the next Woodmen drive, and the ensuing punt was blocked by the Warriors, who took over at Greenwood’s 15-yard line. Four plays later, with 6:57 to go in the half, Valentine snuck inside the left pylon for an 8-yard TD run to knot it at 14-14.
Once again, the Woodmen didn’t need a lot of time to answer. A 15-yard Riddle keeper with a personal foul tacked on pushed the ball into Warrior territory at the 45, and three short passes in a row pushed it to the 20. Burnett, stopped just short a play earlier, got in from a yard out to cap the first-half scoring with 4:20 on the clock.
The Warriors fumbled the ball away on their first play of the second half, with the Woodmen recovering on the Whiteland 27. The visitors held in the red zone, but Greenwood was able to stretch it to 24-14 on a 28-yard field goal by York.
Greenwood travels to Connersville for a Class 4A sectional opener next Friday. Whiteland has a week off before traveling to play Terre Haute North in a 5A semifinal.
