SAM COWAN – Sports Writer
The Whitwell Tigers beat the Lookout Valley Yellowjackets 50-6 at home Friday for their fourth win of the season.
The Tigers did most of their scoring in the first half as they were able to cruise to a victory from there in their first regional contest of the year.
Whitwell head football coach Rocky Stephenson said that his team played well and did a good job of improving on issues he saw in their last game.
“We actually worked hard all week to correct some of the mistakes we had the week before. I felt like we were able to accomplish some of those things we worked on in practice like wrapping up and tackling better,” he said. “Mechanically, I felt like we had a good week of practice, and we executed pretty well.”
The Tigers got their first score of the day about two minutes into the contest with Bennett McDougal throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Miller to make it a 7-0 game.
The next score for the Tigers came on the ground as Wyatt Davis broke off a 42-yard touchdown run to put the score at 13-0 with 4:23 left in the first quarter.
The Tigers added one more touchdown before the end of the opening period as Bennett McDougal scored on an 8-yard run. Theron Mordecai followed with a two-point conversion to boost the lead up to 21-0 with 1:45 remaining in the first quarter.
The early lead continued to grow in the second quarter as Bennett McDougal ran 48 yards for a touchdown, and Davis added a two-point conversion to make it a 29-0 game with 6:27 left in the first half.
The Tigers added one more touchdown for good measure with 49 seconds left in the half as Mordecai scored on a short run. Adam McDougal contributed two points on the ensuing conversion attempt to push the deficit to 37 points.
They led 37-0 at halftime.
The Tigers began to rotate their backups into the game in the third quarter with a running clock also speeding up the remainder of the contest.
Peyton Roberts added to Whitwell’s lead with 1:06 left in the third quarter as he scored on a running play from 14 yards out to make it a 44-0 game.
The Yellowjackets were able to avoid the shutout as they scored a touchdown with 6:35 remaining in the fourth quarter to put the score at 44-6.
The Tigers followed immediately afterward with their final touchdown of the day as Jacob Garcia broke free for an 85-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive as the deficit was set at 50-6.
Neither team would be able to score in the time remaining as the Tigers won by 44 points.
Bennett McDougal had four completions for 42 yards, four carries for 73 yards and one catch for 32 yards in the contest.
Davis had six carries for 90 yards. Garcia carried the ball once for 85 yards and caught a pass for three yards.
Theron Mordecai had 21 rushing yards on four carries, seven receiving yards on two catches and three passing yards on one completion.
Talon Beason completed one pass for 32 yards. Adam McDougal and Miller caught one pass each for 25 and 10 yards, respectively.
Peyton Roberts had three carries for 21 yards, and Tregon Kilgore had 19 rushing yards on three carries.
Ryan Scott recorded 11 rushing yards on two carries, and Charlie French carried the ball once for four yards.
Stephenson said there were good and bad things to take away from the game as his team moves on to the next one.
“We had too many penalties. That was one of the negative things of the night, so we need to clean up our penalties,” he said. “On a high note, I felt like we got some of our younger players some reps, and I was really excited to see some of them get in the ballgame and play as well as they did.”
With the win, the Tigers improved to 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in regional play.
They will next play Friday at Sale Creek High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST.