Whitehall likely sewed up its playoff berth Friday night with a
dominating 56-0 win over Fremont, but it was the mentality of his team
that most impressed Vikings' coach Tony Sigmon.
"I thought
everyone just stepped up," Sigmon said. "We've been nicked up in a
couple places, in those places you don't necessarily see in the stat
book. Our offensive line has been seeing some transition with injuries
and our kids did a nice job with that."
Whitehall scored
touchdowns on its first eight possessions, even while spreading the
wealth on the ground. Nine different players carried the ball in the
game, led by Liam Leeke, who ran for 65 yards and three touchdowns.
Isaiah Lewis also had 65 yards with two second-half scores.
Cole
Essebaggers was efficient with his five pass attempts, completing three
for 121 yards and two scores, one each to Hunter Osborne and Corde
Anderson. Osborne had 111 offensive yards, and Anderson added 64.
Somehow
the Vikings may have been even better on defense, allowing just 56
total yards on 35 plays. Judd Musk and Cody Manzo each picked off a
pass, and Hunter Peterson had eight tackles with Anderson and Musk
chipping in seven apiece.
"I really liked how fast we were
playing, and we were pretty relentless on defense," Sigmon said. "It
feels good to see that. We'll have to play with that kind of tempo and
speed next week. we'll see playoff football from here on out. Portland
is an excellent football team."
Sigmon has said multiple times
how important Portland's lopsided win over Whitehall in week nine last
year was in refocusing his team before what became a district
championship run. This year the Vikes will get a chance to see what
they're made of in a home matchup with the Red Raiders.
"There's definitely
a lot of value in playing a really good football team in week 9,
especially non-conference," Sigmon said. This will tell us what our
deficiencies are and where our focus needs to be."
