White Hall won the special teams battle this year, but Sheridan won the football game.
The Yellowjackets won 58-28 on Friday at Bulldog Stadium for their second straight win over White Hall.
Sheridan (1-0) trailed 7-0 after the first quarter but scored 28 points in the second, then added another four touchdowns in the second half.
Head coach Kevin Kelley said Sheridan’s defense kept the Yellowjackets in the game until the offense got going.
“It slowed them down and didn’t keep giving them points,” Kelley said. “Our defense, I couldn’t have been more proud. They really kept us in the game, in what could have been a completely different ball game if they let them score again, and they didn’t. … If they play like that, we can kind of sputter on offense. You saw what happened when we got going.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Sheridan senior quarterback Dax McMellon completed 26 of 40 passes for 457 yards and five touchdowns.
Junior running back Zay Stephens didn’t touch the ball in the first quarter but scored three times in the second.
He finished with four total touchdowns.
Kelley said he saw what he wanted from those two players.
“When (Stephens) gets the ball in the open field, he might be the best player I’ve ever seen in person,” Kelley said. “In open field, making people miss, Isaiah’s something else. When they take away Isaiah, or they load the box, Dax can throw the ball down the field.”
Last year, Sheridan recovered three onside kicks to pull away. This year, White Hall (0-1) recovered six of the seven onside attempts, with the only recovery coming in the third quarter.
Bulldog junior Kel McEntire returned one in the first half for a touchdown.
Despite going 0 for 5 on onside kicks in the first half, the Yellowjackets led 28-14 at halftime.
Kelley said Sheridan showed it is a complete team in this game, and the onside recovery Hunter Socia gave the Yellowjackets in the third quarter was the extra piece to put the game away.
“If our defense is playing that well, and our offense comes up at some point and does it, you give us an onside kick, we’re going to be really, really good,” Kelley said. “It’s just tough to battle back after the onside kick. … It’s just such an energy sucker out of the other team. So, you do that, and you go score a touchdown right after that, it’s just tough to recover from that.”
McEntire scored all of White Hall’s touchdowns, including catching three scoring passes from senior quarterback Wyatt Golden.