Whiteland’s Tyree Nolan runs for a touchdown during Friday’s game against visiting Franklin.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Struggling through an injured hip that kept him out of two midweek practices, Slate Valentine was quiet during the first half on Friday night. But with his team facing a tie game at the midway point, Whiteland’s senior running back cloaked himself in that famed Keyshawn Johnson saying of a generation ago:
Just give me the damn ball.
The state’s top returning rusher from a year ago, Valentine ran for 115 of his 129 yards after the intermission and scored a pair of touchdowns to lift the Class 5A No. 7 Warriors to a 27-14 home win over county and conference rival Franklin.
“I had a hip pad on — I was like, ‘I’ve got to take that off,’ and it just kept going from there,” Valentine said. “Adrenaline push. Our whole team was going; I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t be the one to give up. I couldn’t go down.”
Whiteland (2-1, 1-1 Mid-State) got a fourth-down stop on Franklin’s first possession of the third quarter and used it to set up the go-ahead touchdown. The Warriors thought they’d gone ahead on an apparent TD rush from junior Tyree Nolan, but that was wiped out by a holding penalty. No matter — on the next snap, Valentine darted 44 yards up the left sideline to give the home team a 20-14 edge. The PAT try was snuffed out.
After forcing a Franklin three-and-out, the Warriors went right back to Valentine, handing to him five times on the first eight plays of the drive to advance to the Grizzly Cubs’ 34-yard line. Ollie Taylor then found Eli Taylor for a 20-yard gain to get into the red zone, and Valentine scored on a 3-yard run five plays later to make it a two-score game with 5:45 remaining in the game.
Valentine carried the ball 19 times in the second half after getting just five touches in the first.
“I feel confident with the ball in my hands with the O-line I’ve got,” he said. “I know that we can get five yards a carry. And since the O-line keeps going, that pushes me.”
“Hits are cumulative,” Whiteland coach Darrin Fisher added, “The more you hit, the more somebody gets hit, the more that it adds up and weighs on them — and we just kind of wore them down. Our kids know that our program, basically, is based on our courage to run down somebody’s middle, and that showed tonight.”
Just a few seconds after that final touchdown, Warrior junior Clayton Ratliff intercepted a Greyson Betts pass to all but seal the outcome. Franklin (2-2, 0-2) got the ball back one more time but couldn’t cross midfield, and the game ended with Whiteland knocking on the door again at the Grizzly Cub 1.
The Warriors’ defense seemed determined to contain county rushing leader Alex Leugers early on, and Betts took advantage, engineering an 11-play, 71-yard scoring march to open the game. The junior completed a 19-yard throw to Cori Tonte and followed with a 16-yard keeper to set up first and goal at the Warrior 3. Leugers dove in from a yard out two plays later to put the Grizzly Cubs up seven with 6:42 left in the first quarter.
The Warriors answered with a 62-yard march that featured eight consecutive rushed. The last of those, a sweep to the left by Nolan, resulted in a 23-yard TD that tied the score at the 2:55 mark.
Franklin’s next possession also ended in a 23-yard scoring run, this one from Leugers after a quick cutback behind the line of scrimmage. The drive featured a mix of runs and short passes from Betts, who was 3 of 3 for 25 yards on the drive, and put the visitors up 14-7 with 9:42 remaining in the half.
No sooner had the Grizzly Cubs retaken the lead than they let it slip away. Three offside penalties — including two on fourth downs — and a personal-foul flag kept a Whiteland drive alive and moved it all the way to the Franklin 11-yard line. Four plays later, Ollie Taylor scored on a 1-yard QB sneak to tie things back up, 14-14, with 1:33 on the clock.
Those self-inflicted wounds were largely a byproduct of inexperience, according to Franklin coach Chris Coll.
“We made mistakes, but we’re young in a lot of places,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep playing hard and playing the next play. I felt like we were a better team tonight walking off the field than we were last week. … I’m disappointed that we lost, but I’m not disappointed in this team.”
Fisher, meanwhile, credited his coaching staff with making the right halftime adjustments to hold the Grizzly Cubs scoreless from that point on.
Before the game, Whiteland honored 2007 graduate Adam Money, who was part of this year’s IFCA Hall of Fame induction class and the first Warrior player to be enshrined. The former star got a chance to see his alma mater reclaim the Boot traveling trophy after the Grizzly Cubs had snatched it away a year ago.
Valentine was thrilled to help take it back.
“It’s a great feeling,” he said. “Especially being senior year, against our rivals. They took it from us last year, but it’s nice getting it back, I’ll tell you that.”
