SOUTH WHITLEY - Friday night's Whitko versus Manchester game was a game full of story lines.

First, there was the return of two people to the field. Whitko head coach Bryan Sprunger returned to the sidelines after a one-game absence because of the death of his mother. On the other side, the Squires finally got their starting quarterback, Rex Reimer, on the field after a suspension that forced him to miss the opening two games of the season.

For both returners, it was success of a sort. Sprunger's team picked up the 27-12 win even though he wasn't exuberant over the play of his team. Reimer looked sharp in the first half completing 7 of 9 passes for 93 yards and looked confident leading the Manchester offense. However, in the second half, he was just 3 for 13.

"You can see that he still needs some snaps so that he can pick up what's happening," Manchester head coach Al Bailey said. "He's a great kid, but his athleticism will sometimes get him in trouble, because he thinks he can do too much."

In another story line, Whitko quarterback Jimmy Linn did his best Kordell Stewart impersonation, playing the first period at quarterback and then moving to running back for the final three quarters. Not only did he lead his team to victory, he had one of the most outstanding games of his career. Linn scored three touchdowns, rushed for 197 yards on 12 carries, caught a pass and had a sack and an interception on the defensive side of the ball. Two of his carries were for 63 and 76 yards. And he hardly played in the fourth quarter when the game was decided.

"Jimmy's a good football player," Sprunger said. "We've had this in the works in our minds a little bit. We wanted Ben Mohr to get into the ball game early at Wawasee and Columbia City to decide poise-wise, whether we could make this move or not. It's helps us as a football team to be able to do that. We wanted to experiment with it. The question mark is whether Ben can handle the pressure of it all or not."

Finally, there were the penalties. There were 20 flags thrown in the game, many of them costly to both sides. Manchester's first touchdown was helped by three penalties inside the 25-yard line that kept the drive alive. Trailing 20-12, the Squires had another touchdown called back because of a holding penalty that would have given Manchester a shot at tying the game with less than three minutes to play in the third quarter.

Whitko's first touchdown was set up by a Manchester special teams mistake. On fourth-and-7 at their own 28, the Squires never got the kickoff because of a high snap that gave Whitko first down at the 7-yard line. After a false start, Linn took a quarterback sneak into the end zone with 4:29 to play in the first quarter.

Manchester came back with a 13-play drive of its own that ended with a 4-yard plunge from David Barrett to cut the lead to 7-6 after the missed extra point.

Whitko came back quickly though after Linn returned the kickoff to the 37-yard line. On the next play, he handed his quarterback job over to Ben Mohr, who returned the favor by handing off to Linn for a 63-yard touchdown jaunt that made the score 14-6.

The Squires, though, did not hang their heads after falling eight points behind. They put together a drive that lasted more than six minutes, highlighted by three Reimer passes that were completed to Tom Hardy totaling 66 yards. Reimer scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper to cut the lead to 14-12. Reimer's pass on the two-point conversion was knocked down by Bo Mullins.

In the third quarter, Linn added to his rushing total on the first drive of the second half with a 76-yard run to the 3-yard line. Two plays later, he scored from 1-yard out to put Whitko ahead 20-12 after the extra point missed.

Manchester had another chance to cut into the lead late in the third quarter after Todd Sites carried the ball four times for 41 yards on a drive that set up a first-and-goal situation from the 9-yard line. Barrett got in the end zone on the next play, but it was called back because of holding. On the next play, Linn picked off Reimer, and Manchester would never challenge again.

"That's the mental mistakes," Bailey said. "He didn't have to try to make the block there. Barrett was going to get in the end zone. He just wanted to be part of it and he got caught up in it. On the interception, we weren't supposed to throw the ball to the tight end, but all of the sudden it did. Mentally, we broke down, not physically. I was happy up until the fourth quarter."

Despite the win that got Whitko back on track, Sprunger still saw plenty to work on.

"We're still making a lot of mistakes," Sprunger said. "Our goal for the week was to play every down hard. We're getting better at it, but we have a long way to go. We're looking to play consistently. With all the things that have happened around here, it's a possibility that it could strengthen us. When things aren't going the way we want them to go, you have some choices to make. The only choice I know is to keep after it. Tough times don't last, tough people do."

Whitko (2-2, 1-1) is at Oak Hill, while Manchester (0-3, 0-2) hosts North Miami Friday. [[In-content Ad]]