Kosciusko quarterback Ethan Wood threw for 242 yards and three touchdowns, receiver Antonio Harmon had 146 yards receiving and two touchdowns, and the Whippets defeated Florence 28-25 Friday to earn their first win of the season.
With district play starting this week, Whippets coach Kelly Causey believes the freshman-sophomore duo is peaking at the right time.
“This was probably the third game with Ethan as the starter; he’s developed well,” Causey said. “Antonio has an SEC offer from Mississippi State, so he’s a big-time receiver, and as a sophomore, he’ll have some more offers. Ethan did a good job of getting the ball to him, and Antonio did a great job of going up and getting the ball.”
After trailing for three-and-a-half quarters, Wood found Harmon for a 91-yard, fourth-quarter, go-ahead touchdown to put the Whippets ahead for good. It was the duo’s second touchdown connection of the night, as Wood hit Harmon for a 33-yard scoring strike in the third quarter.
Harmon averaged 29.2 yards per reception, and Wood was 10 of 17 passing.
“I thought our offensive line did a great job of protecting our quarterback,” Causey said. “They really stepped up, and that’s one of the reasons we were able to do the things we were doing – because of the protection they were giving us, which we’ve struggled at this year.”
The Kosciusko (1-4) offensive line not only gave Wood the time needed to pick apart the Florence secondary, but it also opened running lanes for Whippets running back Zavier Miller. Miller ran for 128 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries, and he added 55 yards receiving and a touchdown. Last year, Miller pounded Florence (1-5) for 216 yards and two scores.
“(Zavier) had a big game, and last year he rushed for like 200 yards against Florence, so I guess he’s definitely had good games the last two years against them,” Causey said. “But they did a great job of opening holes for him, and of course that allowed us to really free up a little bit and throw it a little bit because we were able to run the ball like we did. Overall, it was a great job by basically the whole offense from the line to the receivers to the running backs and the quarterback.”
Devonte’ Ellis paced the Kosciusko defense with 12 tackles. Davonta Turner tallied nine tackles, and Nicholas Mallett contributed with eight, including a sack. Marlon Dotson recovered a fumble.
Florence running back Degerrick Lee had a pair of three-yard touchdown runs in the first and second quarters to give the Eagles a 15-0 lead with 10:15 remaining in the second quarter.
Miller scored on a 4-yard run with 9:49 left before halftime to make the score 15-6.
The Eagles extended their lead to 18-6 after a 35-yard field goal from Eli Jennings with 7:23 left in the third quarter.
Wood and Harmon connected for their first touchdown of the night midway through the third quarter to trim the deficit to 18-13 after the PAT from Will Carter.
Carter was 2-for-3 on extra-point attempts.
Florence’s Reed Barlow ran for an 8-yard touchdown with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter to put the Eagles ahead 25-13 following the PAT from Eli Jennings.
The Whippets owned the fourth quarter.
Wood tossed a 42-yard touchdown to Miller with 11:45 remaining in the game, and Wood’s 91-yard, go-ahead touchdown pass to Harmon occurred with 8:25 left to play. Miller capped the go-ahead score with a designed running back two-point conversion pass to Azikwe Mays.
Kosciusko will attempt to carry the momentum from last week’s win into Friday when district play opens with a trip to Leake Central. The Gators are winless in six games this season and fell to the Whippets 32-27 last year. The Kosciusko schedule during the first half of the season featured three games against teams from higher classifications. The Whippets hope to parlay that experience into wins as they begin their district stretch.
“We definitely have a lot of confidence with it being the first win of the year,” Causey said. “We’ve played three 5A schools the first three of out five games, so that was a challenge for us. The kids have a lot of confidence, especially offensively with being able to have some success because we really struggled on the offensive side of the ball not being able to put up a lot of points. I think this is going to do us some good for down the line.”
