Despite Tough Losses, White Knoll Making Its Way To The ‘Next Step’
By Worthy Evans
Contributing Writer
Columbia – The Next Step for the White Knoll football program came as a 31-21 season-opening loss to A.C. Flora at Columbia’s Memorial Stadium Aug. 21, but longtime head coach Victor Floyd, who is in his first year at the school, said that the Timberwolves will use that loss to keep moving forward.
“It was a tough loss, but we’re going through some growing pains and the kids are upbeat,” he said. It will be a big jump from game one to game two, and hopefully we’ll be better.”
White Knoll trailed the Falcons 10-7 at halftime and 17-14 going into the fourth quarter. A.C. Flora scored on a pass play to go up 24-14, but Timberwolves quarterback Brayden Cress hit running back Christian Chisolm for a 70-yard touchdown pass play to cut the lead back to three.
The Timberwolves got the ball back late in the game on a Falcons’ missed field goal attempt, but could not muster a scoring drive and turned the ball over on downs inside their 10-yard line.
A.C. Flora scored on a 2-yard TD run in the closing seconds for the final score.
Last week the Timberwolves traveled to Sumter and fought hard but fell short in a 34-27 loss to the Gamecocks.
White Knoll’s home opener against T.L. Hanna comes next, followed by a home game against North Augusta Sept. 11, a trip to Goose Creek Sept. 18 and a home game against Ridge View Oct. 2 before opening Region 3-AAAAA schedule against Lexington Oct. 9.
Depth will be a big challenge as the schedule plays out, but Floyd said he likes the way the Timberwolves have put in the offseason work and are responding to the season’s tests.
“I think we’ll be fine,” he said. “The nucleus of our group is playing hard and working hard and that’s going to benefit us. You can’t get bent out of shape after one game. One game doesn’t determine the season.”
Besides juniors Cress and Chisolm, the Timberwolves offense includes senior H-back Kirkland Day, in the backfield. Wide receivers Tyler Brown, Kyle Griffin and tight end Kentrell Bonnette are juniors.
Senior left guard Ritchie Setzer leads the line that includes junior left tackle Caleb Mack, sophomore right tackle Jacob Whyte, junior right guard Braydon Weston and junior Joseph Delle Ross.
Seniors Jah’Mauri Davis at linebacker and Jonathan Keith at defensive back lead the defense. Other standouts include junior linemen Jhovani Mpumbu, Nathanial Johnson, Noah Mar, and senior Evan Pierce.
Sophomore linebackers Adrian Ellsworth and Cyrus Evans join Davis, and junior Cl’Menta Crosby, and sophomores Chisolm and Elijah Frazier join Keith in the backfield.
Cress is also the team’s placekicker and punter.
“Young and eager,” Floyd described the team at a practice leading up to the A.C. Flora game. “That’s the exciting part of it. When you get a young group that hadn’t played a lot, they’re eager, they do what you tell them, they’re working extremely hard because there’s the unknown for them. When you get an older group, they feel like they’ve arrived, they know what’s going on. The excitement of the unknown is what’s really good about this group.”
