All season long the East Webster Wolverines have ridden the strong wave that is their defense and that didn’t stop on Friday night.
If anything, the Wolverines wanted to pick up the pace as they hit the playoff slate and the defense played like it against Coahoma County. In a game that was never much in doubt, that side of the ball was suffocating while special teams and defense picked it up as well on the way to a convincing 47-0 victory.
“Those guys have set the tone for us all season,” head coach Ron Price said. “We challenged our kids to come out and take their hope away from them as early as we could. Defense made plays all night.”
All-Area linebacker and Louisiana Tech commitment Zy Ford took that quite literally. On the opening kickoff of the game, Ford laid the lumber on the Coahoma returner and the Wolverines established themselves as the aggressors the rest of the way.
Ford kept that physicality for the rest of the game as he finished with a sack on defense and rumbled for 140 yards on just 11 carries with two touchdowns. EWHS rushed the ball 24 times for 247 yards in the contest and passed with for 71 on three completions from Kaleb Warnock.
“I feel like our offensive line has gotten better every single week. We knew (Coahoma) was going to blitz tonight and coach (Brandon) Haynes did a great job all week talking to our guys and putting them in the right spot. And Zy Ford did a tremendous job running the football. He’s hard to tackle, but he was being physical not only on defense but running the ball.”
While the Wolverines took a quarter to get rolling on offense, nothing was stopping the defense from setting the tone. EWHS came out firing on all cylinders in the first quarter and Hunter Baddley blocked a punt deep inside Coahoma territory that went up into the air and was pulled down by Trace Helms as he scooted into the end zone for a 5 yard score for the early lead.
Briceton Johnson would get the next two scores. The sophomore weaved his way through the defense on an end around on the first one for an 8 yard touchdown. He had the next one on a punt return as he found his blockers and scored from 68 yards away and it was 20-0.
Zy Ford capped the first half with his 3-yard run in the final minutes of the half and the Wolverines were in command leading 26-0 at halftime.
It was tough for the Red Panthers to stop the Wolverines when that tank got rolling downhill. Kaleb Warnock threw back-to-back passes to Jonatavis Cunningham for big plays hitting him for a 39-yard pass play and then a 19-yard touchdown to extend the lead out to 33-0. By the end of the quarter, there was a running clock and the advantage had ballooned to 40-0 and the clock would roll the rest of the game.
Kobe Smith got one more score for good measure as the linebacker got in the game and had a hard-nosed 35-yard run to cap the scoring. Smith also was a man possessed on the defensive side yet again as he racked up 3.0 sacks in the game and recovered a fumble.
The defensive unit had 8.0 tackles for loss in the game with the blocked kick on special teams, a fumble recovery and an interception. Cunningham had the interception on defense to go along with two catches for 58 yards and a touchdown. Britain Burleson had 1.5 tackles for loss in the first half before sitting out the second after having a minor injury.
The win moved the Wolverines to 8-3 on the season and gave them three-straight wins by a combined score of 122-20. It was the fourth-straight season that they’ve advanced to at least the second round of the playoffs but they’ll be tasked with a big challenge to get to round three.
The defending runners up of the North in East Union is waiting and the Urchines have won six-straight games since the Wolverines last saw them on the road back in September. EWHS won 23-21 as Smith blocked a field goal that would have won the game and the Urchines would turn around and close the season strong.
It’s tough to beat a team twice and Ford knows that all too well.
“I don’t want that feeling. Back at Starkville we beat Oxford in the regular season and then lost to them in the playoffs and I still have that feeling in my stomach,” Ford said. “I just want us to focus this week. I’m going to do everything I can to keep the guys focused and I think we can get the (win).”
