Whitehouse off to 3-0 start this season

Published 2:38 pm Thursday, September 15, 2022

WHITEHOUSE — In the season opener, Whitehouse had a 23-7 lead over North Forney.

Just before the end of the third quarter, the game was tied at 30. It was a familiar situation for the Wildcats.

Just a year before — in the 2021 season opener — Whitehouse led 20-0 at halftime against Forney. The Jackrabbits scored three touchdowns in the final 13 minutes, including the last one with 34 seconds remaining to fall 21-20.

That marked the first of seven straight losses for the Wildcats, who never gave up more than 28 points in that span, but only averaged 14.4 points per game. Whitehouse finished 2-8 in that 2021 season.

Fast forward to 2022, and the Wildcats were in another tightly contested battle against a team from Forney.

The ending was different this time. Mikevic Hall had a 2-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter to give the Wildcats the lead. In the fourth quarter, Beaux Benson made a 31-yard field goal, and Hall added another 2-yard touchdown run to give the Wildcats a 47-30 victory.

“It definitely helps,” second-year Whitehouse head football coach Kyle Westerberg said. “Everybody wants to go 1-0 and win the season opener. Anytime you can get that first one, it’s a big momentum builder for where we want to go. You look at the course of the game against North Forney, we kind of had to battle through a little bit of adversity.

“I think with where we were last year, we were real young,” Westerberg said. “In certain spots, we were a very young football team. Being new to this myself and our kids, we handled that situation this year a lot better than we did last year in that same situation. We were tied up, and we just kept pressing forward.”

The Wildcats followed that with wins of 54-21 over Jacksonville and 48-17 over Corsicana to move to 3-0 on the season. During this start, Whitehouse is averaging 49.7 points per game.

“We all just came together,” senior receiver DeCarlton Wilson said. “We didn’t want to go 2-8 again. And we aren’t going 2-8 no more, we’re 3-0.”

Wilson (11 catches, 159 yards, three touchdowns) has been a big part of the offensive success. He’s joined at receiver by Tulane commit Jermod McCoy (17 catches, 159 yards, three touchdowns) and Braylon Jackson (13 catches, 210 yards, one touchdown).

Hall is leading the rushing attack with 53 carries for 228 yards and five touchdowns. Quarterback Josh Green has 42 carries for 178 yards and six touchdowns, and he is 43 of 63 passing for 607 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions.

“When you look at it, it’s been all three phases putting it together,” Westerberg said. “For the offense to be averaging 50 points is great, but defensively, we’re getting stops, and the special teams are continuing to be special. They gave us short fields against Jacksonville, and then the other night against Corsicana, we returned the opening kickoff back.

“For Josh, being under Coach (Tucker) Carter, our offensive coordinator all offseason long, they’ve been studying and getting everything ready to go in the right direction. I think the key component of it all is being able to run the ball. Mikevic has done a really good job. Going through the summer, we felt like he was the lead back in this deal. Anytime you can have a quarterback that’s balanced that can run it and throw it, it’s definitely a weapon. Both of those guys back there, you’ve got to be able to defend them both. And the offensive line, they were young last year. We were so sophomore heavy. Again, we’ve got one senior starting. They’re doing a great job. I feel like the success is really starting with those guys up front, having a balanced attack and everything else.”

Starting on the offensive line are senior left guard Kyle Yarbrough, junior left tackle Dylan Acker, junior center Cody Bostik, junior right guard Kyren McCullough and sophomore right tackle Johnathan Bush.

Whitehouse will play at Henderson to close non-district play on Friday before opening District 8-5A Division II play Sept. 23 at Nacogdoches.