6th Grade White Pittbulls Weather Storm
Article by Denny Bland
Saturday night at Smith Robinson Stadium, the senior white Pittbulls outlasted two storms in the form of the remnants of Hurricane Ike and the Union Christian Eagles. Both blew in like a lion but left like lambs. The 6th grade team used a punishing ground attack in the torrential rainstorm to notch a 13 to 6 victory in its opening game of 2008 campaign.
The Pittbulls would take the game’s opening kickoff and march down the field to score its first touchdown. The drive guided by quarterback Reid Wheeler took a little over 2 minutes and was highlighted by long runs by Tanner Cooper, Ty Wyckoff and Tanner Wiley. It would be Wiley who would get the call around right end for a 20 yard score and Cooper would add the PAT to make the score 7 to zip. After a deep kick by Drew Ulmer the Eagles initial possession was quickly snuffed out by some tenacious defense led by Nick Houston and Trey Hamilton. Union would be forced to punt after a three and out series.
The remainder of the half and quarter would be a battle of field position with a slick track and pigskin. The two teams had drives stall out either due to miscues or stout defense. It was a testament of wills that would check the Pittbulls as right before half the Eagles threatened but once again the defense stiffened up. Houston would force a fumble and Cooper got the recovery to prevent a score. The second half was much of the same as first as both teams would grind out yards in the running game due to inability to get a passing game going in high winds and rain.
The defense held tough all night with key contributions by Nick Walton, Tyler Cox, Jordan McKinley and Garrett Miller. The stalwarts were spearheaded by Houston, Hamilton, and the “two Tanners.” However, late in the game Union would find a chink in the armor and take one to the house for 55 yards making the game 7 to 6. Greenwood’s defense would snuff the PAT to preserve the win margin. The offense then went to work again with a good return on the kickoff by Wiley over the 50 to start on the Eagle end of the field. Long runs by Wiley, Cooper and Wyckoff would set up the final score with a Reid Wheeler touchdown sneak and the PAT would fail. The Pittbulls would kick back to the Eagles but the stout defense held them to nothing on four attempts making this one in the books, a 13 to 6 win.
The ground attack amassed around 150 yards while the passing game had 4 attempts and no completions. Wiley led the rushers with 10 carries for 76 yards unofficially and 1 score. The Pittbulls will next travel to Sallisaw, Oklahoma to face the Black Diamonds in hopefully more ideal conditions. Hats off to the Greenwood cheerleaders, coaches, family and faithful for their unwavering, albeit wet support Saturday night.
(Below says John is the author, only because John posted the story. Our thanks to Denny Bland for writing and submitting the article.)
