ADA — Whitehall has a luxury most teams don't have - two superstar-level athletes in its backfield. At the biggest moments of Friday's pre-district game against Forest Hills Eastern, the Vikings relied on them both.
On fourth-and-2 in the red zone and with less than 20 seconds left in a tie game, the Vikings handed the ball to senior running back Gavin Craner, and he raced to pay dirt, scoring the winning touchdown of a dramatic 28-21 Vikings' victory.
Craner's touchdown was the second big fourth-down conversion of the winning drive. Earlier in the possession, quarterback Camden Thompson dropped back on fourth-and-4 just a few yards past midfield and improvised - neither he, Craner nor coach Tony Sigmon could recall what the play call actually was, but Thompson knew all along he would run for it if someone didn't quickly break open. The senior quarterback danced around and finally found his way to the marker.
"If he's 6-5, then he used 6-4 3/4 to get that first down," Sigmon said. "We needed that and obviously that was a big
play."
Thompson, of course, also made two huge plays on defense, picking off a pass and taking it 90 yards to the house on the final play of the first half - that one cut a 14-point FHE lead in half and provided a huge mental boost going into the break - and bookended things with another pick on the last play of the game.
Those two fourth-down plays, though, made by the team's two most accomplished athletes - Thompson backed up Craner by accounting for 122 through air and ground combined - summed up what makes the Vikings so dangerous.
"When you're looking at Gavin and Cam in the backfield, that's two Division I athletes," Sigmon said. "That's really a great place to
start...People are like, 'Why are you going (for it) on fourth down?' Because our kids demanded it. When
they have that kind of belief structure, if we tell them no, we probably don't win the game. You've got to believe in your kids."
Whitehall's Nate Betz (3) and Gavin Craner celebrate Betz' one-yard touchdown run in the third quarter of Friday's district game at Forest Hills Eastern. The Vikings won a thriller, 28-21.
Craner, back from a sprained ankle that kept him out of the
previous two games, brought the additional spark of wanting to pick up
the slack for fellow back Ryan Goodrich, who suffered a season-ending
injury in October. Craner looked no worse for wear Friday, gaining 150 yards and displaying some great moves, but he also credited
his offensive line.
"Our line is incredible," Craner said.
"They're the trench bullies. They get down there, they're ready to go.
They're physical. They deserve it
all. We have a veteran line. We've had a couple people
banged up and hurt on the line and we've had people step up."
It was that sort of belief that carried Whitehall through a nightmarish first half. The Vikings fumbled the ball away twice and surrendered an improbable 99-yard touchdown drive that could have broken a lesser team.
FHE was backed up to the one-yard line after recovering a Whitehall fumble at the Hawks' four-yard line and failing to move the ball forward. Hawks' quarterback Jackson Arnold, having already escaped a sack that would've resulted in a safety on third down, had his punt blocked back in his face on fourth. Somehow, Arnold was able to keep his head enough to field the ball, dance away from a couple more Whitehall defenders and eventually find a receiver downfield for a first down. (Because the punt never crossed the line of scrimmage, Arnold was permitted to pass it.)
It was the wildest play of a solid night for Arnold, who led the Hawks with 188 yards of offense, most of it in the first half, and two touchdown runs.
Later in the same drive, FHE's Max Ferrick ripped off a big gain, fumbled the ball, and it bounced right to brother Cody Ferrick, who ran it in for a touchdown. The Hawks led 14-0 - at least, until Thompson's pick-six.
"We weren't going out just quitting," Thompson said. "We all came together. We all knew what we
had to do and that's what we did. We came out in the second half and
fought for our lives."
Thompson, who played for last year's team, is just one Viking set on making up for last year's disappointment, when the top-ranked Whitehall squad was stunned by Big Rapids in the district finals. In that respect, they couldn't have asked for a better script; those same Cardinals will again be the opponent in the district finals after they defeated Ludington Friday.
"I've got a
feeling we'll be focused," Sigmon deadpanned. "I think that's going to happen...but last year happened. And we have
guys that were on that team. At the same token, we have a bunch of new kids that are stepping up in a
big way. The point being, we're going to approach it with the same effort and enthusiasm and
intensity that we do every week. That's what we're going to do. If we do it any other way, if we try to make it something different,
that's usually where we end up with egg on our face."
However, the time to prepare for Big Rapids could wait. The Vikings had earned a wild playoff win, their ninth under Sigmon, and stood one victory away from a third district championship in that span.
"It's still football season in Whitehall. That's pretty good," Sigmon said.
