MARTINSVILLE
Whiteland had a 17-point lead at halftime Friday night, but Darrin Fisher didn’t like the look of his offense. The Warriors had a few big plays on the board, they had two drives stall and a third end on a fumble.
“Very disappointed in our physicality off the bus,” the Warriors coach said. “I think in the first half we were looking for big plays rather than running hard. We talked about that at halftime.”
That much was obvious.
The Warriors scored on the first play from scrimmage in the second half — an 80-yard touchdown run by junior running back Landen Wood — then scored touchdowns on two more 80-plus-yard drives to cruise to a 38-0 win over Martinsville.
With big plays coming from their wing backs on the perimeter and tailback Chase Valentine pounding the ball inside and outside, the Warriors (5-1) finished with 517 yards of total offense, every one of them on the ground.
“It’s a matter of, when you’re going to hit the edge, hit it,” Fisher said. “You can’t get out there and dance. When you’re supposed to block the outside armpit of the safety, get the outside armpit. Don’t get the inside armpit. It was just physicality. That’s all it was.”
Even in a lackluster first half, the Warriors were still always in control. They drove 74 yards on their first drive with Valentine breaking loose for a 58-yard run and quarterback Brant Kunz punching it in from 2 yards out. After their second drive stalled, sophomore wingback Jonathan Crowley scored on the first play of the third possession with an 88-yard touchdown gallop. A late drive at the end of the half ended in a 36-yard field goal by senior kicker Chris Dawalt.
And when they became even more physical in the second half, Martinsville had no answers. Wood’s 80-yard score, which came on his only carry of the game, lit a fire that kept the Warriors going. On the next drive, they got a 44-yard run by senior wingback Dalton Murray before a 5-yard touchdown run by Valentine. Murray had a 55-yard run on the next possession that ended on a 21-yard touchdown run by senior wingback Desmen Singleton.
Valentine, the Warriors’ workhorse, finished with 167 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Murray finished with 109 yards on just three carries and Crowley had 114 on six thanks to those big plays.
And Whiteland’s defense made sure the Warriors were never in danger. They dominated the line of scrimmage, keeping Martinsville tailback Tyler Cox from getting a run over 10 yards until the fourth quarter. At halftime, he had just 21 yards on 12 carries. Martinsville had a total of just 1 rushing yard in the first half thanks to sack yardage.
Martinsville never got past the Whiteland 40 in the first half. In the second, the Artesians (2-4) reached the Whiteland 13, but were driven back on a sack by Whiteland linebacker Dalton Hughes. Martinsville quarterback Tyler Adkins threw to the end zone from the 29 on fourth down, but Whiteland junior Quinn Warweg picked it off to end the drive. Martinsville’s next possession reached the Whiteland 2, but senior Kayden Welling sacked Adkins and pried the ball loose for a fumble to make sure Martinsville never got on the board at all.
“Our defense has kind of carried us all season long from an emotional standpoint,” Fisher said. “Those guys practice with emotion. They play with emotion. We played really good team defense.”
