WHITMIRE — The Whitmire High School Wolverines will travel to Orangeburg tonight to take on the Bethune-Bowman High School Mohawks.

The Wolverines are currently 2-3 and the Mohawks are 4-1.

Head Coach Charlie Jenkins said last year was a good game for the fans to watch — even though the Wolverines lost 34-26 — and he expects a close game tonight.

“They just ended up making a few more plays than us at critical times. One of their touchdowns we had their quarterback sacked, but he was able to shake loose and heave an alley-oop pass to their 6 foot 3 wide receiver who out jumped our guy for a touchdown on a broken play,” he said. “That play has stuck with me. If we are going to beat them we can’t give up the broken plays because they are more athletic than us.”

During the Wolverines game last week with Branchville, the Wolverines were unable to make an extra point. Jenkins is hoping that was a fluke.

“We have usually been pretty good at PATs. If we get our PATs versus Branchville the final score is 48-16 instead of 36-16,” he said.

Jenkins has been stressing to the team that every point counts, and reminding them that last year they lost two games by two points. To earn every possible point, Jenkins said they will have to focus.

During this week’s game, fans may see more of the Wolverines throwing the ball.

“Our quarterback has a great arm and a pretty good understanding of what his reads should be. If we feel like the offensive line can protect him, we will always look to take advantage of a defense that commits too many players to stopping our run plays, but being able to protect him is the thing,” Jenkins said.

During tonight’s game there will be a few obstacles for the Wolverines.

According to Jenkins the Mohawks running back, Makiah Simmons, is a returning All State player, and tackling him is like tackling a bowling ball. Quarterback Braxton Wedgeworth is a returning starter and Jenkins said he is steadily improving.

The Mohawks also try to spread out their opponents’ defense with the pass and then gash them with runs from the running back and quarterback, Jenkins said, adding those are simple but effective offensive plans.

“Their head coach is a Newberry High graduate — Kenneth Tucker — and he has done a great job of instilling pride and discipline to their program in a short amount of time. Before he arrived they would often struggle, but now they can play with anybody,” he said.

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By Andrew Wigger

awigger@s24514.p831.sites.pressdns.com

Reach Andrew Wigger at 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @ TheNBOnews.