Penalties mar Whale Branch’s victory in home opener
By Mike McCombs
SEABROOK – If it’s possible to dominate your opponent and, at the same time, play a horrible game. Whale Branch did it on Friday night.
And it’s possible Warriors head coach Jerry Hatcher likes it that way, in an opener, at last.
Just minutes before Whale Branch’s 19-8 win over North Charleston, Hatcher said of his team, “these boys aren’t near as good as they think they are. But we’re about to find out just how good they actually are.”
How good the Warriors are depends on just which metric you use. There most obvious flaw Friday concerned the number of yellow flags that littered the field, seemingly ever other play.
“The problem is the amount of plays that were selfish plays,” Hatcher said. “I can live a procedure penalty hear and there. I can live with unnecessary roughness if it’s bang bang. But when you’re doing stupid stuff like yelling at people like you’re in the NFL, … (next week) after practice they’re going to get a little education on penalties.”
Whale Branch totaled more than 100 yards of penalties in the first half alone. It finished with 165 penalty yards on 16 flags.
The penalties only exacerbated the ineffectiveness of Whale Branch’s usually stout running game. The Warriors’ offense gain just 208 yards.
“Our guys thought, ‘We’re Whale Branch, we can run on anybody,’” Hatcher said. “Not tonight. They slapped us around a little bit. Sometimes that’s good.”
Hatcher felt like the ground game was stymied a young Warriors team simply not knowing their blocks, and that can be remedied.
So with little offense and almost 1/10 a mile in penalty yards, what did Whale Branch do well enough to win?
It shut down any offense North Charleston had. It’s only touchdown came on an interception return.
Whale Branch opened the scoring early in the second quarter when Ja’Darius Garrett hauled in an 18-yard touchdown pass from Jakhi Pusha in the right side of the end zone.
But later in the quarter, Pusha would give it right back, changing a play at the line and then making a poor decision, throwing the ball directly to North Charleston’s Jaimaire Fuller who returned it 8 yards for a touchdown. Jhan Rhett ran for the 2-point conversion.
So after a half that saw North Charleston amass just 43 yards of offense, the Cougars held an 8-7 halftime lead.
In the second half, the Warriors turned up the heat even more on defense, and the offense did just enough to score twice more.
On the play that led to Whale Branch’s second touchdown, North Charleston punter Sam Riddy, Jr., mishandled a snap near his own goal line and tried to run. It was 4th-and-25 from the 11, so the biggest player on the field would have had to make the 36 for the first down.
He didn’t come close. Warrior Davon Evans tackled him at the 7.
On the very next play, Clifton Major ran it in from 7 yards out to give Whale Branch a 13-8 lead.
In the fourth quarter, Mason Griffin capped a rare long drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to close the scoring at 19-8.
At quarterback, Pusha finished the game 4-for-9 for 61 yards with the interception and a touchdown. He totaled just 9 yards on eight carries and left the field at least twice for injuries. Keith Chisholm threw an interception on his only pass during his time at quarterback.
Garrett had a nice game as Pusha’s main target with three catches for 54 yards and a touchdown.
On the ground Griffin (10 carries, 55 yards, TD) and Major (seven carries, 48 yards, TD) led the way.
Dayaun Brown had an interception for the defense, which was even more stout in the second half.
The Warriors held North Charleston to minus-58 yards in the second half, thanks to a couple bad snaps and big losses, which put the Cougars at minus-13 yards for the game on offense. Factor in 11 penalties and 75 penalty yards, and North Charleston spent most of the night going the wrong way.
Hatcher said he made several defensive personnel changes for the second half and liked the results.
“The guys that started the game weren’t the ones that finished the game,” he said. “We found some stuff tonight.”
In particular, Hatcher said he replaced a couple big players with smaller, quicker defenders.
“I want a fast defense so I don’t have to look at the video all night,” he said.
WHALE BRANCH 19, NORTH CHARLESTON 8
North Charleston 0 8 0 0 – 8
Whale Branch 0 7 6 6 – 19
Second Quarter
WB: Ja’Darius Garrett 18 pass from Jakhi Pusha (Brian Jaramillo-Ruiz kick)
NC: Jaimaire Fuller 8 interception return (Jhan Rhett run), 4:31
Third Quarter
WB: Clifton Major 7 run (Jaramillo-Ruiz kick failed), 8:59
Fourth Quarter
WB: Mason Griffin 3 run (Jaramillo-Ruiz kick failed), 6:47
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
