SOUTH WHITLEY - Through the first 20 minutes, the Wawasee and Whitko football teams played closely. However, in the final 28 minutes, the host Whitko Wildcats dominated Friday.
Defeating the visiting Warriors 20-0 in the season-opening game for both teams, Whitko ran 43 plays to Wawasee's 14 in the final 28 and a half minutes of the contest, controlling the line of scrimmage."No. 1, Whitko just plain played better than we did," Wawasee coach Tom Wogomon said. "There's no doubt about it when you see a 20-0 game, who wanted it more, who played faster, who played downhill. It's not like we didn't feel Whitko was a dangerous ball club. Whitko has gone back to what they do, which is running the football."
Whitko ran the ball 50 times for 224 yards, led by senior Dakota Harmon's 73, followed by senior D.J. Fouce's 55, sophomore quarterback Alex Stoddard's 46, senior Scott Skiles' 16 and junior Chris Bumbaugh's 15.
"We have some guys we can rotate in there," Whitko coach Wayne Swender said. "We have D.J. and Dakota that start, but then we have Bumbaugh and (Austin) Mort that can come in and keep us fresh."
That running game made its presence felt when Whitko drove the ball 82 yards in 4:23, culminating with a 1-yard plunge by Harmon with just seven seconds remaining in the first half.
"It was a big momentum swing for us," Swender said about going into the locker room with a 7-0 advantage. "We were fortunate to get it in, then things just started working in our favor in the second half."
They certainly did.
After forcing a three-and-out to open the second half, Whitko used 7:30 of the clock to travel 77 yards on 14 plays before Stoddard found Mort for a nine-yard touchdown pass with 2:43 left in the third quarter.
"That was a very important drive," Swender said. "It ate up seven minutes, and it was what we wanted to do."
And that's what Wawasee would like to do too.
"That's what we want to be able to do ourselves," Wogomon said about the long drive. "That is just something where we're sitting on the sideline going, 'We're down, but we're not down too bad.' Then, as they were moving it inside the 20 and then scored, it was a lot for us to come back with with what we struggled at."
The 14-play drive actually featured more offensive plays than Wawasee ran the entire second half (13), and also produced more yards, as the Warriors didn't even get a positive yard in the half.
"The problem we had was, we were ineffective in moving that ball," Wogomon said about his team, which had negative-10 yards in the second half. "Our offensive line is far too experienced to not be able to move the ball consistently. We have to get that figured out."
While Wawasee struggled, Whitko had no problem moving the ball behind Stoddard, who was making his first varsity start.
"He started in the first half and I think he was a little nervous for his first start," Swender said about the 6-foot-3, 180-pound quarterback. "He's got some big shoes to fill with Gabe (Starkey graduated), and he knows that, but he responded."
He responded by completing 5 of 18 passes for 77 yards and the touchdown pass to Mort, as well as scoring the last touchdown of the game, racing 27 yards to the end zone with only 5:35 left on the clock.
Helping Stoddard in the start was junior receiver Derek Snep, who led the Three Rivers Conference with 32 catches for 433 yards last season.
Picking up right where he left off, Snep caught four balls for 68 yards, one catch going for 30 yards and another going for 22.
"Derek draws attention," Swender said. "They know about him because he had a great year last year. He's an important piece."
The win leaves Whitko with a positive feeling going into next week's home contest against Whitley County rival Columbia City, which defeated Warsaw 35-16 Friday night.
"Columbia City has a nice team," Swender said. "They have Logan Rehrer there, who's a very good quarterback. We have to be ready for that challenge."
Wawasee hosts Garrett next week, and Wogomon is hoping for a better showing in Week 2.
"If there's any resolve, it's that this is just the first game of the season," Wogomon said. "We've got to make sure we make that improvement jump from Week 1 to Week 2."
