SYRACUSE - It's hard to overshadow a head coach's first career victory, but Rustin Mikel did that and more Friday night.

Mikel carried the ball 17 times for a mind-boggling 332 yards and scored four touchdowns as Wawasee smashed Whitko 50-26. The Whitko defense couldn't find a way to stop Mikel all night as he rushed for at least 50 yards in every quarter. Those 332 yards get even bigger when you consider that he only rushed for 370 yards in 1997.

"Their defense is predicated on movement up front and blitzing the linebackers," Wawasee coach Joe Rietveld said just moments after his first head coaching victory. "Rustin got free a few times and when tailbacks do that, they can make a couple of moves."

Mikel made cut-back moves all night, especially on his 69-yard jaunt in the fourth quarter that sealed the victory. Twice it looked as if Whitko defensive players had him locked up in the open field and twice those players were left wondering what could have been.

Wawasee's first drive of the game was actually something that Mikel would like to forget. Although he did get a 53-yard carry on the possession, Mikel fumbled the ball away at the Whitko 18-yard line.

The Wildcats looked promising as they put together a 10-play drive, but that stalled out at the Wawasee 14-yard line on a fourth down play that only got four of the needed nine yards.

When the Warriors took the ball back, Mikel began to play keep away from the Wildcats. He had a 61-yard carry on the second play of the drive that got Wawasee to within 17 yards of paydirt. He eventually scored from three yards out to put the Warriors ahead 6-0.

In the second quarter, Mikel set up a touchdown as the Warriors ran the ball on five straight plays and sucked the Whitko defense in. Then, Adam Brown threw a nifty fade to the corner of the end zone and Tony May ran it down for an 11-yard scoring strike.

The Wildcats looked to be in trouble until Ben Mohr hooked up with Josh Gonzalez for a 53 yard touchdown pass to cut the lead in half with just two minutes to play.

But Rietveld put his two-minute offense in motion, and Brown hit May again with just 40 seconds to play from 15 yards out to take the wind out of the Whitko sails.

Leading 18-6, Wawasee closed out Whitko as Mikel scored from 21 yards out on the Warriors first possession of the second half. He added a 44-yard touchdown on the next drive before Whitko scored to make the score 31-18.

But Travis Klenke put the final nail in the coffin by returning the ensuing kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown.

So while Rietveld picked up career victory No. 1, Whitko head coach Bryan Sprunger stayed at 99 for his career.

"Anybody who's been in it that long deserves credit," Rietveld said on the coach he battled wits with all night. If there's two things I'd love to do in my career, it would be to have 99 career wins and to have my kid playing for me."

Wawasee (1-0) will be at Fort Wayne Carroll Friday while Whitko (0-1) will host Columbia City. [[In-content Ad]]