Nonconference play wraps up for White Hall with a challenging road trip this week.
The Bulldogs will leave home for the first time this season to play Morrilton at 7 p.m. Friday.
Head Coach Daryl Patton said taking a win into the upcoming bye week would be huge for White Hall.
“Obviously, Morrilton is a very, very good football team,” Patton said. “Ranked in the top, I think, five in Class 5A. Got a lot of starters back from a team last year that made a playoff run, so they’re very, very good. Got a tough challenge ahead of us, but I want to see our kids go out there and compete. Play hard, don’t beat yourself. Let’s get better this week.”
White Hall (0-2) started the season with two home games but won’t play another until Oct. 10. The Bulldogs are on the road this week, off next week, then start Conference 5A Central play with back-to-back road games before finally returning to Bulldog Stadium against Joe T. Robinson.
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The Bulldogs haven’t had much luck on the road in recent years. Their last road win came on Sept. 15, 2023, a 28-21 win at Beebe. They have lost eight straight road games since.
While this game will be White Hall’s first on the road this year, it will be the home opener for Morrilton (2-0).
The Devil Dogs opened the season with a 48-35 win at Russellville before traveling to Texarkana last week and winning 41-25. Senior quarterback Maddox Berry is a veteran entering his third season as the varsity starter under Coach Cody McNabb.
Senior receiver Jamarcus Sandidge caught two touchdown passes from Berry and returned a kickoff for a score against the Razorbacks last week.
Patton said the Bulldogs’ defense needs to execute the game plan the way it did in the second half against Warren last week to slow down this high-scoring Morrilton offense, but the White Hall offense can help the defense, too.
“I think we’ve got a really good game plan,” Patton said. “We gotta go out there and execute it. Offensively, too. They’re a very aggressive defense. … We’ve just gotta take advantage of it on offense, put points on the board. That’ll help the defense out, as well. If we can put together some long drives, even better. That’ll keep that offense on the sideline.”
Although it wasn’t enough to win last week, White Hall showed some fight in the 28-14 loss to Warren.
The Bulldogs shut out the Lumberjacks’ offense in the second half, and senior quarterback Wyatt Golden threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns.
Patton said he was proud of the defense’s second-half shutout.
“I thought they gave us a chance,” Patton said. “They just did what they were coached to do. They didn’t do anything above that. They just did what they were coached to do, played extremely hard. We just kept everything in front of us.”
The Bulldogs rushed for 84 yards last week, led by running back Xavier Wallace, up from 56 yards against Sheridan in the season opener.
Patton said it was an improvement, but he wants to see the run game continue to improve so the White Hall offense isn’t one-dimensional.