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SOUTH WHITLEY - All season long, when coaches have talked Whitko football, they have talked about talented senior halfback Jimmy Linn.
And if it wasn't Linn, it was halfback Bryan Rose or fullback Keith Starkweather. The three players are Whitko's rushing leaders.
In Whitko's 28-22 win over Tippecanoe Valley last night, two other names surfaced: Tim Mason and Joe Potts. The duo, along with a Wildcat defense that allowed just 11 rushing yards on 23 carries, helped Whitko overcome 255 Valley passing yards and a 42-yard field goal by Nathan Moore.
Mason, a wingback, rushed for 114 yards on six carries. Potts, a backup fullback, picked up key yards at the end. Both played big parts in Whitko's win.
Whitko finished the regular season 5-4 overall and 4-3 in the Three Rivers Conference. Valley is 4-5 overall and 4-3 in the TRC.
Mason scored two touchdowns and had rushes of 30 and 37 yards. His first touchdown, the 30-yard run, pulled Whitko into a 6-6 tie in the first quarter. His second touchdown, a 9-yard run, put Whitko in the lead for good at 20-15 with 51 seconds left in the third quarter.
All of Mason's runs came on a counter play that gave the Vikings fits.
"Tim Mason played hard and ran well," Whitko coach Bryan Sprunger said. "He was our biggest threat offensively."
"Boy, there were multiple times we thought we had (Mason) tackled for little or no gain," Valley coach Scott Bibler said. "He broke numerous tackles. They were taking advantage of our defensive gameplan. We were shifting over, and that left us vulnerable in that spot."
During one stretch, Potts carried the ball five straight times and scored Whitko's last touchdown, a touchdown the Wildcats would need. His 3-yard run with 8:11 left in the game put Whitko up 28-15.
The Vikings answered Potts' touchdown. Fullback Jason Parker rammed his way in from a yard out for a touchdown with 5:30 left to make it 28-22. A 27-yard pass to Matt Baker from Brandon Eaton set up Valley's score.
If Mason and Potts were Whitko's #pleasant surprises, 36 passes by a quarterback was Valley's. Eaton threw 36 passes, completed 16 and had no interceptions. He threw for 255 yards.
Is Air Valley here?
Nah. Bibler said Whitko's defense dictated that the Vikings attempt their greatest number of passes in recent memory.
"We were ineffective running the ball, but they had so many people stacked at the line of scrimmage, we were forced to go to the air," Bibler said. "They basically had 10 people within five yards of the ball."
The Vikings went down gunning. With 57 seconds left, Eaton completed 18- and 17-yard passes, but the Vikings ran out of time.
If a key series in the second quarter would have gone differently, maybe the game wouldn't have come down to Eaton firing passes out of the shotgun formation.
Whitko defensive end Jeremiah Laws has made big plays all year, and he continued that trend against Valley. He sent Valley's Matt Baker sprawling with an 8-yard loss after he received a pitch in the second quarter. Valley faced fourth-and-18.
Whitko's Jeff Coble blocked Joey Manns' punt. Bo Mullins recovered it, and the Wildcats were at Valley's 13-yard line. The first play from scrimmage, Linn switched from halfback to quarterback and scored on a quarterback sneak. His touchdown put Whitko ahead 14-6 with 6:31 to go before halftime.
"For us to win on their field, we couldn't make some of the mistakes we made," Bibler said. "The blocked punt was very critical. It gave them great field position and a score and was a big momentum switch."
Moore's 42-yard field goal gave Valley a 15-14 lead with eight minutes to go in the third quarter. The lead disappeared when Mason scored on his 9-yard run.
Next week is sectional week. Whitko is at Angola at 7:30 p.m. next Friday. Valley is at West Noble at 7:30 p.m.
