Prep football: Whitney beats Woodcreek in clash of ranked teams, but coach isn’t happy yet
It was beautiful weather wise in Rocklin on Thursday night as a nonleague game wound down: 68-degree temperatures and a small bit of wind.
The Whitney High School stadium was filled for a nonleague game against Woodcreek. The student section loudly cheered their classmates and watched the game closely in part because of the action and because there seemed to be cellphone reception issues.
No. 12 Whitney won 21-10 to move to 2-0 in a game moved up a night to help ease the load of a statewide referee shortage.
Postgame, coaches from both schools stressed the need for more mental strength from their players, especially if each program expects to compete for a league championship and return to the playoffs.
Fifth-year Whitney coach Zac McNally was pleased with the win but still, in a classic football coach voice, he urged players to improve their game. He didn’t sugarcoat their performance in his postgame speech or interview, challenging his crew to get better or find out what happens if they do not.
“You know, you’re never upset about winning a football game,” McNally said. “But we came out flat. That’s two weeks in a row coming out flat. Especially with our home crowd being behind us, I expected a lot more execution and a lot cleaner of a game coming from game one to game two. We’ve got to get better.”
The Wildcats are missing starting quarterback Jacob Smiley. He was injured early in a season opener against Antelope. Coaches said doctors fear it may be an ACL tear in his knee. A junior, Smiley is eager to recover and get back on the field Stepping in last week, senior Trevor Hargis has come of age under center for Whitney. He completed 17 of 23 passes for 173 yards and a touchdown. He comes from a football family - his dad played safety at UC Davis.
Hargis has played football his whole life and was excited to get a chance to start this season. Hargis opened the scoring for the Wildcats in the second quarter with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Dai’torian Brown-Law. The quarterback is versatile, even unleashing two punts in the style of Drew Bledsoe from years ago in the NFL.The Wildcats lined up in offensive formation on fourth down but punted to catch the defense off guard. Hargis brushed those punts off, describing kicking as “easy”.
McNally trusts Hargis. The scheme may have changed slightly from long verticals to slants and hitch passes, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Wildcats went to air over sixty percent of the time.
The other two Wildcat touchdowns came from rushes by junior Lorenzo Young and senior Isaiah Bickham. The Wildcats aren’t only talented on the offensive side. Cornerback Phoenix Rose, who got an interception, continues to field college scholarship interest from programs such as Arizona, Colorado State, Washington State, and Cal, among others.
Now back to the drawing board with an emphasis of program-wide improvement. Although any championship game is “a long time away” as McNally put it, the potential is there. Woodcreek also aims to strengthen mentally.
Timberwolves coach Brad Hunkins started off his interview by pointing out the potential of his team but quickly got to the point, “We didn’t finish. We missed too many opportunities. We gotta go back and make sure we’re checked in and focused. We had too many mental errors by guys that shouldn’t have made errors.”
The Timberwolves scored a late consolation touchdown with a 35-yard pass from Owen Blevins to Joey Nielsen. Ethan Downie also converted a 40-yard field goal in the first quarter.
Both teams hit the road next week as Whitney faces Clovis in Fresno and Woodcreek plays Nevada Union in Grass Valley.
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 12:38 PM.