White Knoll holds on to beat defending AAAAA state champion Dutch Fork 17-14

Lexington – The White Knoll High School football team still has two regular-season games left and what it hopes is a deep, deep run in the AAAAA state playoffs. However, there was a championship-winning celebration following the Timberwolves’ game on Friday at the WKHS stadium.

That’s because WKHS came away with a 17-14 victory over defending state champion Dutch Fork, a team that had beaten it by a combined score of 112-7 in the first two seasons under head coach Nick Pelham. The win snapped a 13-game losing streak to the Silver Foxes as well as ending DFHS’  33-game region streak.

More than anything though, it was affirmation that the Wolves had taken one massive step forward after being winless the year before Pelham arrived.

“It took so much work and dedication to get to this,” said senior Shrine Bowl linebacker Jaiden Kimble, who helped seal the victory with an 11-yard run for a first down that allowed WKHS to run out the clock. “It’s a wonderful feeling because we started at rock bottom. It was a great win.”

Pelham, who was the defensive coordinator for legendary Dutch Fork head coach Tom Knotts before taking the White Knoll job, reflected upon the upperclassmen who were parts of his first two teams.

“The first thing I said to the kids was, ‘Remember the small senior classes we had our first two years,’ “ Pelham said. “Those seniors were the guys I had to look in the eyes after losing (to Dutch Fork) and tell them to keep fighting because it’s going to pay off at some point and time, but probably for a group that’s not you. Do you know how hard that is for a 17-year-old young man, to keep fighting, to keep working, to keep practicing, but the payoff's not going to be until the next year or the next year.

“I wanted our guys to get the benefit of the hard work over 900 days, but to have the humility to thank those first two senior classes for laying the groundwork, building the foundation, building the program and getting us to this point.”

After going 2-9 in Pelham’s first year, the Wolves improved to 7-4 last season. Now White Knoll is 7-0 this season and 2-0 in Region 4 and ranked seventh in the High School Sports Report AAAAA Sweet 16 poll.

Dutch Fork, ranked 11^th in the poll, fell to 2-5 after dropping its region opener. Knotts was gracious toward White Knoll but let his feelings be known about how the contest was officiated.

“There were too many mistakes (by Dutch Fork) and too many referees,” said Knotts, who has led the Silver Foxes to six state titles in the past seven years. “And you know what? I’ve never said anything about the referees, but I’m sick of getting screwed by the referees.

“Assisting a runner, assisting a runner,” Knotts said in regards to a call that took a touchdown off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter that would have given DFHS the lead “We got screwed all night by the referees. You can print it. I don’t care. I’ll deal with it.

“They’re (White Knoll) a good football team. We made a lot of mistakes (three turnovers),  had a lot of unforced errors. We didn’t play well at quarterback. We didn’t do the things we need to and we’re 0-1 in the region, but we’ve got three more weeks. We’ll be alright.”

The Silver Foxes were penalized 14 times for 84 yards, eight of those coming with them jumping offsides as WKHS quarterback Landon Sharpe consistently clapped his hands without a snap throughout the game.

It was uncharacteristic for us,” Knotts said. “I don’t think you can clap and draw people offsides. I think it’s illegal. I’m tired of getting screwed by the referees, and it’s been like that all year.

“My players were the only players coming out of the game for their knees showing. They had their knees showing all night. Let the (South Carolina) High School League do what they want. I’m sick of it.”

The most consequential offensive penalty against Dutch Fork came early in the fourth quarter after White Knoll had taken a 17-14 lead.

KJ Smith took a direct snap with the Foxes at their 29-yard line. He looked like he was stopped on a couple of occasions. However, the pile kept moving, and Smith broke out of the pack, maintaining his balance with a hand on the ground before racing the rest of the way for what appeared to be a 71-yard scoring run.

However, DFHS was penalized for “assisting a runner,” and the ball came back to the other end of the field. On the next play, quarterback Jonathan Hunt was intercepted by Caleb Geronomi to kill the drive.

White Knoll started at the DFHS 38 and took over four minutes off the clock before stalling at the 12. Placekicker Jordy Aguilera had his 29-yard field goal blocked, and the Silver Foxes took over at their 8 with 3:33 still remaining in the game.

Completions of 14 and 24 yards from Hunt to Trent Lodge helped move Dutch Fork to a first down at the 42 with still over two minutes left. However, Smith had the ball stripped from him by Geronomi while trying to break tackles. The Wolves’ Charles Plange recovered the loose football at the 45 with 1:51 to go.

Kimble had his 11-yard run on second down for a first down that allowed WKHS to run out the clock.

While White Knoll had its offense slowed down for the first time all season, finishing wit just 254 yards of total offense, its defense continued its stellar play. The Wolves limited Dutch Fork to 141 yards.

“We’ve got a lot of 3-year starters on defense,” Pelham said. “They fly to the ball and just really get after it. We had a great defensive performance, and they’re a great offensive team.”

WKHS got on the scoreboard first with a 22-yard field goal by Aguilera with 2:55 left in the first quarter. The Wolves started the drive at the DFHS 33 after the Silver Foxes were forced to punt from their 2-yard line.

It appeared the game would go to halftime with the 3-0 score. However, Knotts chose to fake a punt from the Dutch Fork 36, and Hunt’s pass fell incomplete.

Sharpe later threw a 23-yard scoring pass to Austin Cunningham with 56 seconds left in the first half to make the halftime score 10-0.

All of the good vibes White Knoll brought out of the locker room for the second half quickly dissipated. The Foxes’ Maurice Anderson fielded the second-half kickoff at the DFHS 15 and raced 85 yards for the score. Justin Welch added the extra point and it was suddenly a 10-7 game 11 seconds into the second half.

The Timberwolves had to punt on their ensuing possession with Dutch Fork taking over at its 39. The Foxes easily had their best possession of the night, going 61 yards in 11 plays for the score.

Hunt threw an 8-yard scoring pass to Ron Di Pietro with 3:28 left in the third quarter. Welch’s extra point made it 14-10.

         WKHS started at its 20 following a touchback on the ensuing kickoff. The Wolves methodically moved the ball down the field with Sharpe and freshman running back Tiyon Fanning taking turns running the ball.

Also, a personal foul and two offsides penalties against DFHS helped extend the drive. The second offsides penalty came on fourth down and three yards to go to give White Knoll a first down at the Dutch Fork 25 heading into the fourth quarter.

On the first play of the final quarter, Sharpe faked a handoff to Fanning and then sprinted to his left. However, he pulled up, turned and threw back across the field to a wide open Fanning for the touchdown to make it 17-14 with 11:52 remaining in the game.

“That was a little bit of a trick play,” Pelham said. “In a really big AAAAA football game, you’ve got to have some trick plays. Guys are too big and too strong to continue to move the ball. It was called correctly and we ran it correctly. We had the time with it being the first play of the fourth quarter to do it the way we wanted to.”

Sharpe completed 15 of 26 passes for 155 yards and the two TD passes while rushing for 45 tough yards on 14 carries.

“He’s the best quarterback in South Carolina,” Pelham said. People can argue and tell me it’s someone else – it’s not always pretty – but he’s the best quarterback in South Carolina.”

        Fanning had 41 yards yards on 20 carries. Evan Henderson caught five passes for 43 yards and Shrine Bowl tight end had four catchs for 26 yards.

        Devin Geronomi was White Knoll's leading tackler with 10 to go with one tackle for loss and one pass breakup. Caleb Geronomi had three tackles, one of them for a loss , to go with his forced fumble and interception. Conner Burgess had an interception along with five tackles and 1 1/2 TFLs.

       Hunt completed just 8 of 19 passes for 101 yards with Lodge catching six of them for 73 yards. Deon Winsley led the DFHS defense with 11 solo tackles, three assists and one TFL. Bryce Nutall had six solo stops, three assists, one quarterback sack and 1 1/2 TFLs.

The Wolves have another big matchup next week as they travel across town to take on Lexington. The Wildcats are 6-1 and ranked ninth.

Pelham doesn’t believe there will be any residual victory hangover.

“We always meet on Sundays, and the coaches do a good job of getting us to move on,” Pelham said. “I’ll be ready and I think the team will be ready.”

“Oh no, not all,” Kimble replied when asked if the Wolves would still be in celebration mode. “We’ve already talked it about/ That’s what we talked about after the game in our huddle. We’re going to celebrate tonight and then put it in the past.”

Dutch Fork will cross into Lexington County again next week to face Chapin, which is 5-2 overall and 0-1 in region play.