MENTONE - With 4:12 left in the football game, Bryan Sprunger gambled.

With 42 seconds left, the gamble paid off.

The Whitko Wildcats marched into 'Death Valley' and won 26-15 over the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings Friday night.

Sprunger, the Whitko coach who hardly ever calls a trick play, called one against Valley with just over four minutes left.

Whitko, leading 18-15 at the time, had the ball at the Valley 46-yard line and faced a fourth down with 3 yards to go. A Whitko punt would place Valley deep in its own territory and would make the Vikings have to travel nearly the length of the field in four minutes to score. And that would be against a Whitko defense that held the Vikings to three downs and out their previous two possessions in the fourth quarter.

Instead, Sprunger called the punt fake.

And as he had done all night, Jimmy Linn delivered.

Linn scampered 14 yards on the fake to pick up the first down, giving Whitko good field position at the Valley 32-yard line. More importantly, with four more downs, he had given Whitko a chance to run the clock down.

"We had talked back on second down, if we were within 5 yards, we were going to run the fake," Sprunger said. "You get the ball into Jimmy's hands, he'll make good things happen.

"We would have much rather done that than had a blocked punt in that situation."

Viking head coach Scott Bibler admitted he was surprised by Sprunger's play calling.

"That's not typical Bryan to do something like that," he said. "I expected him, the way their defense was playing, to rely on their defense and try to pin us deep. Make us drive a long way for the score. It was a good call on his part.

"That was the breaking point."

Eight plays later, with 42 seconds left, a 5-yard touchdown run by fullback Keith Starkweather sealed the 26-15 win for Whitko.

Whitko had some help to start the last drive, a 15-yard penalty on Valley that allowed the Wildcats to begin at their 48-yard line.

This was the second week in a row that Whitko, winners of four straight, trailed at halftime and came back to win against above .500 teams. Last week, Whitko trailed Rochester 17-6 at halftime, only to win 18-17. This week, Whitko trailed Valley 12-6 at halftime.

"I'd guess I'd rather not be in those holes," Sprunger said. "You just can't do that. We were very fortunate the last couple of weeks."

Last year, Whitko had a senior-laden team and finished 6-2. This year, with a team that had only six seniors on the roster, Whitko again finished with a 6-2 record. The Wildcats were 5-2 in the TRC, good for second place.

"I commend our kids on a fine season," Sprunger said.

One of the five goals Sprunger and his team set before the season was to get better every week. His team, typical of his teams in the past, accomplished that goal. Although the majority of the Wildcats are juniors, they are juniors who came into the season not having lost a game since the sixth grade.

"You look at earlier this year, the Southwood game," Sprunger said. "When things didn't go well, we folded. Things didn't go well for us early tonight. And we didn't fold."

Whitko played well on both sides of the ball.

The Whitko offensive line, especially the left side, created the craters that the Wildcat backs shot through. The Vikings couldn't stop Linn, who had runs of 14, 15, 20 and 31 yards in the second half. He finished the game with 142 yards rushing on 18 carries.

"Linn's a tough runner," Bibler said. "He's the type of quarterback you don't get very often in high school football. He's one of those quarterbacks who plays outside linebacker and can hit. He's a physical kid."

Center Dustin Patrick, left guard Ray Smith, left tackle Mark Christian and tight end Alan Wagner were the blockers who opened the lanes for the Whitko backs.

"Tonight we were having a lot of the success to the left," Sprunger said. "I guess I'm from the old school. If you're having success, why change? We just kept going to that side all night."

After giving up 12 points in the first 13 minutes, the Wildcat defense held Valley to three points in the last 35 minutes. Valley had 145 yards rushing, but 80 came on Nick Stutzman's touchdown run early in the second quarter that gave Valley a 12-0 lead. Stutzman accounted for Valley's other touchdown, a two-yard run that put the Vikings up 6-0 in the first quarter.

Starkweather's five-yard run just before halftime closed the gap to 12-6. Andre Queiroz then had Valley's only score in the second half, a 29-yard field goal in the third quarter to make it 15-6. Linn's 15-yard run with one second left in the third quarter closed the game to 15-12. A 24-yard run by halfback Bryan Rose gave Whitko its first lead at 18-15 with 7:13 left.

Stutzman led Valley with 139 yards rushing on 14 carries.

Valley, 5-3 overall and 4-3 in the TRC, opens sectional play at Lakeland next Friday.

Whitko hosts Blackford next Friday. [[In-content Ad]]