The lack of high school officials left Whiteland and Kokomo fit to be tied. (Well, sort of.)
Friday night’s game was stopped due to lightning with the two teams tied at 14-all at Kokomo. The game was set to be resumed at noon Saturday, but Warriors coach Darrin Fisher said it was canceled because officials could not be secured with all of the other postponements around the state.
‘They worked hard to find officials and they couldn’t do it,” Fisher said.
The IHSAA ruled the official result to be a no contest.
Fisher said it was disappointing the game was stopped because he said he believed the Class 5A No. 2 Warriors had grabbed momentum. Whiteland (1-0) had tied the game with 59 seconds left in the second quarter.
“We had a plan to substitute, play a lot of kids and keep our kids fresh,” Fisher said. “I think our plan had worked; they had worn down and we had taken control of the game physically.”
The Warriors’ (1-0) long opening drive ended with a missed 30-yard field goal with 3:58 remaining in the first quarter. Keemarion Pollard scored on a 2-yard run to give the Wildkats (0-1) a 7-0 lead with 10:12 left in the second.
Kokomo then scored on a botched kickoff when the Warriors failed to gain possession and Marcus Houston recovered the loose ball to make it 14-0 with no time going off the clock.
“We thought the ball was going to go out of bounds because we had seen that on film,” Fisher said. “The ball hit like a golf shot — it had draw on it. Normally, he kicked it out of bounds a lot. It kicked 1 yard short and kicked back (in bounds). That was an unfortunate play. If that was his plan, that was a great kick.”
Whiteland narrowed the deficit to 14-7 on Jordan Palmer’s 2-yard TD run. After the Warriors stopped the Wildkats for no gain on fourth down and 4 to regain possession on the Whiteland 37, Oliver Taylor connected with Zander Hite for a 17-yard gain. A 12-yard run by Taylor and an unsportsmanlike conduct call put the ball on the 18. The Warriors tied the game at 14-all on the next play on Slate Valentine’s 18-yard TD run.
Taylor completed 5 of 6 passes for 63 yards.
“Oliver played great,” Fisher said. “He’s a second-year quarterback and that might have been one of the best games he has played. He scrambled, completed some big balls for us and managed the game well.”
Valentine led the Warriors with 70 yards on 13 carries.
