Warriors can’t hang on in rain-soaked game

The rain came pouring down at Dee Harris Field on Friday night as the White County High School Warriors tried to celebrate their seniors to open the season. While there was plenty of rain, there weren’t plenty of points and the Warriors found themselves on the wrong end of a 13-14 when the clock expired.  
 
“I’m really proud of how the kids played,” first-year head coach David Foster said. “Not necessarily how we executed – we had 100 yards in penalties, we turned the ball over too many times, had an extra point blocked. But time after time, when they could have folded, they didn’t. They fought really hard and played all the way to the end.” 

“It was a very, very long game,” Foster said, referring to the lightning delay along with all of the penalties that were stopping the clock. “It makes for an exhausting night, but the boys were still ready to go all the way through, however long it was. Our conditioning really paid off. Our kids didn’t blink.” 

On offense it was Cole Sims leading the way gaining 234 of the Warriors’ 328 rushing yards while scoring one of White County’s two touchdowns. Sims had another 40 receiving yards, not letting the wetness of the field slow him down.  

“Cole had a monster game running the ball,” Foster said. “The whole offense was flying, everyone was blocking. They played a really good game.” 

Eli Smith was a one-man-wrecking crew and it’s no doubt opponents are going to take notice. Smith had 14 solo tackles along with two assists. He forced two fumbles, recovered one, and recorded a tackle for a loss.  

“We just have to clean up some mistakes and give ourselves a chance to win,” Foster said that he feels the Warriors are in a good position as they get set to play York Institute this week.  

The Dragons struggled on offense against Stone Memorial as they opened their season on the road. They managed just 46 total yards of offense as they lost by a score of 28-6.   

The Warriors will make the trip to Jamestown this Friday night before hosting a two game homestand against first Cookeville and then Tullahoma. They won’t face a district opponent until September 19 when they play Livingston Academy on the road.