PINE BLUFF — White Hall coaches call its simple reverse play “Shark,” and had used it several times this season before late in the fourth quarter of a 32-20 victory Friday night at Wildcat Stadium.
But when the time came to try it against Watson Chapel, Joseph Stewart, the receiver who usually takes the handoff from Terrance Warren, was on the sideline nursing a sore ankle.
With the Bulldogs leading by five points and needing just one more big play to put away a game that would ensure them of at least a share of the 5A-Southeast Conference title, White Hall Coach Mike Vaughn called it anyway.
“I just felt like it was oneof those times,” Vaughn said. “You’ve just got to take a shot.”
Instead of Stewart, it was Jeremy Sprinkle moving parallel to the line of scrimmage before bursting around the corner for a 58-yard touchdown run with 2:04 left, and it served as the clincher against Watson Chapel (7-2, 5-1) for White Hall’s seventh consecutive victory since losing all of its non conference games.
Sprinkle, a lanky athlete who has committed to Arkansas, touched the ball just one other time on offense - a 12-yard reception from Nathan Lee - and he had one sack.
But the reverse was where he made his biggest impact.
“I told [Sprinkle] at halftime, I said, ‘Joseph is out with an ankle, you’re going to have to do that at some time tonight,’ ” Vaughn said. “Of course, [Sprinkle] is a great athlete.”
The run wrapped up a victory for White Hall (6-3, 6-0) after Watson Chapel had twice trimmed leads to five points after the Bulldogs were up 17-0 lead in the second quarter.
A 10-yard run by James Collier got Watson Chapel within 17-6 at halftime and a Jerome Eason 1-yard sneak made it 17-12 in the third quarter. The Wildcats were stopped short on two-point conversion runs after both scores.
But both times the Wildcats got within five points, White Hall responded with a score or a key stop when it could have lost the lead for the first time.
After Eason’s score, Warren’s 1-yard run capped a 12-play, 57-yard drive, including the final 43 yards on the ground, and Lee’s two-point conversion run made it 25-12.
Another score by Collier,who finished with 88 yards, from 12 yards out on fourthand-1 made it 25-20, after a conversion run, and Watson Chapel got the ball back after it forced White Hall to punt.
A 16-yard run by fullback Treyveon Savage got the Wildcats across the 50, but the next two plays gained only 6 yards and an Eason incompletion forced Watson Chapel to punt.
“We had some moments,” Watson Chapel Coach George Shelton said. “But certainly not enough to seal the deal.”
Seven plays later, Sprinkle’s sprint down the home sideline cemented White Hall’s place as the No. 1 seed from the 5A-Southeast.
“A lot of people thought we were dead,” said Vaughn, whose team started 0-3. “But these kids never thought it and these coaches never thought it.”
Sports, Pages 29 on 10/29/2011