Ed White HS- It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t flashy, and it wasn’t stylish, but they’ll take it. Ed White took the hard fought victory over Wakulla Friday night 20-13 at home. White committed several penalties including two that resulted in two Ed White touchdowns being called back. They were unable to capitalize on turnovers as the defense forced four turnovers but White was unable to turn any into points. Every point that White scored came off long offensive drives in which the offense found a way to extend a drive.
In the first half, Ed White got on the board first when quarterback Isiah Teal connected on a long pass to his receiver Xavier Baldwin on a 50-yard touchdown pass. Baldwin was able to get behind the defense as they were keying on running back Christian Ellis who had just registered a first down. The touchdown made the score 6-0 in the first quarter.
Wakulla’s defense and Ed White’s defense saw themselves trading blows in the send quarter. Like prize fighters, Wakulla would make a defensive play and then Ed White would make a defensive play.
Eventually, Wakulla would find themselves deep into Ed White territory and would punch the ball into the end zone for a touchdown to tie the game at 6-6.
On the ensuing drive, Ed White’s offense would stall near midfield , yet head coach Lawrence Johnson elected to go for it on 4th and 5. He dialed up his quarterback’s number and Teal delivered. Converting a fourth down play into a first down using his legs.
Later in the drive, Teal would use his legs again, scoring on bootleg run for an Ed white touchdown. Teal would then fire a strike to the back of the end zone for a successful 2-point conversion, making the score 14-6.
Wakulla would score and Ed White would respond. Now it was time to see who could stop who at this critical point in the game. As halftime quickly approached, Wakulla pressed for time attempted to score quickly. Instead they turned the ball over when running back Zamarion Smith fumbled the ball after being hit by Joshua Patterson. Coastal Carolina commit Christian Ellis would recover the fumble for Ed White.
Not content with just sitting on a lead, Ed White decided to be aggressive and took to the air on their ensuring drive. Teal went up top to Gabriel Garmon, his big junior wide receiver for a long gain down to the 2-yard line.
The 60-yard pass set up a 2-yard run by Jaquan Wiggins, as the touchdown increased White’s lead to 20-6 going into halftime. Wiggins has been an outstanding change of pace back to Christian Ellis. Wiggins has had explosive plays on offense and has scored for his team This tandem is looking good for the Commanders and hopefully they can stay on the same page as summer intensified.
In the second half, Wakulla continued to make Ed White earn everything on the ground. They play fundamentally sound football in the run game, plugging gaps and making solid open field tackles. Eventually their play on defense would ignite their offense as Smith caught fire.
Smith would take a handoff up the middle a break several tackles on his way to the endzone for a Wakulla score. The extra point was good and they trailed Ed White by just one score 20-13 late in the third quarter.
The rest would be summed up as mistakes and mishaps. Ed White’s Sherman McClain intercepted a pass and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown weaving through defenders. However his interception return would be called back due to a block in the back.
Later in the contest, White had a chance to put their opponents away when Xavier Baldwin took the end around, breaking tackles and scored a touchdown for White, only for it to be called back due to the referees calling holding.
It was that type of game for both teams, penalties, turnovers, tough hard earned yards, but in the end Ed White made more plays than Wakulla and would get the victory. The defense would seal the deal.
White improves to (1-0) on the season and will face Westside (1-0) next week. Westside defeated Jackson 14-0 Friday. Wakulla (0-1) travels to North Marion (1-0) next week. They defeated Forest 36-8.
