A dominant passing effort led White Hall to a senior night victory on Friday.
Junior quarterback Wyatt Golden threw six touchdown passes, four of them to senior Chris Joe, leading the Bulldogs to a 46-13 home win against Jacksonville.
White Hall (3-6, 3-3 in 5A-Central) coach Daryl Patton said the Titans loaded the box to stop the run, and Golden took advantage.
“Our receivers ran good routes,” Patton said. “Our line gave him time, but Wyatt stepped up tonight. He did what we want him to do. Had a couple of bad throws, bad decisions, but for the most part, man, I’m so proud of him.”
Golden completed 16 of 24 passes for 454 yards, while Joe caught six passes for 157 yards. Sophomore receiver Kel McEntire caught the other two touchdown passes, finishing with four receptions for 123 yards.
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Sophomore Aiden Bitely caught two passes for 102 yards, while senior running back Kylon Davis caught four passes for 72.
Golden said his all his receivers stepped up, but McEntire impressed him the most.
“Being a sophomore, he’s probably one of the best in the state,” Golden said. “I give a lot of credit to Kel. He came in this year, didn’t have much expectation, but he stepped up a lot. Then Chris, I’m gonna miss him next year. Obviously, he’s my go-to guy.”
The offenses dominated the first quarter, with the teams combining to score passing touchdowns on each of the quarter’s five possessions. Golden completed two touchdown passes to McEntire and one to Joe in the first, along with a 65-yard pass to Bitely to set up one of those scores, and the Bulldogs led 20-13 entering the second.
Jacksonville (1-8, 0-6) had the ball entering the second quarter and continued moving the ball, even converting a 3rd down and 17. The Titans made it to the White Hall 1-yard line looking to tie the game, but the Bulldogs’ defense made two critical tackles to stop the Titans on fourth down.
White Hall took over at its own 2, but a false start backed the Bulldogs up to their own 1-yard line. It didn’t matter.
Golden threw down the right seam to Joe, who caught it and outran his defender for a 99-yard touchdown, and White Hall went on to lead 26-13 at halftime.
The White Hall defense shut out Jacksonville after the first quarter. The Titans turned it over on downs on their opening drive of the second half, then punted each drive afterward.
Patton said he was proud of how the defense responded to the Titans’ early scores.
“Started out, we didn’t play as hard maybe as we should have,” Patton said. “Maybe we had some mental mistakes, but the kids stepped up big down in the red zone, held them out of the end zone a couple of times. The second half, they got after it. They played hard and didn’t give them anything, and that’s what we gotta have.”
White Hall scored touchdowns on three of its five second-half possessions. The backups took over for the final possession, which ended with a 13-yard touchdown run by Xavier Wallace, the only non-passing score by either team, with 1:22 to play.