Mid-Carolina holds Whitmire scoreless in rivalry game to earn their first win in 2024

WHITMIRE, S.C. — Week three of the high school football season featured another rivalry game between two Newberry County football programs. Mid-Carolina(1-2) held Whitmire (1-2) scoreless to get their first win of the season. The Rebels beat the Wolverines 28-0 on the road.

Things got chippy on social media last season after the Wolverines upset the Rebels at home in their week three matchup. It was the first time Whitmire beat Mid-Carolina in over 20 plus years.

The visiting Rebels came into this year’s game with a huge chip on their shoulders after last season’s loss and another embarrassing loss to their county rivals, Newberry.

Mid-Carolina started the game off strong to score on their opening drive of the game after recovering a fumble on Whitmire’s first offensive series of the game. It started off much like last week’s big rivalry game. Unlike last week though, they were able to run the ball with much more success and their offensive line really dominated in the trenches.

Ryker Woolstenhulme scored a 17-yard rushing touchdown to give his team a 7-0 lead. Both teams struggled to get anything going the remainder of the quarter and both defensive units made timely stops on third down.

The Wolverines found a nice rhythm on offense in the early parts of the second quarter and were able to drive the ball to the red zone. Unfortunately, some of the same problems their offense had in the first game of the season by not finishing drives came back to rear its ugly head in this game. Whitmire failed to convert a fourth down attempt inside the 15-yard line and turned the ball over on downs late in the first half.

The Rebels went into halftime with a 7-0 lead. They came out of the half and quickly found the end zone. Keshon Williams got things going with a nice 15-yard bruising run. Williams was tough to bring down all night and easily had his best game on the ground in this early part of the season.

Josiah Woods finished the drive off with a one-yard rushing touchdown.

The Wolverines offensive struggles continued. They had a tough time moving the ball with an injured Xyze Stephens, who didn’t play, and a hobbled Kayshaun Schumpert.

Mid-Carolina led 14-0 at the end of three quarters.

Then, the Rebels begin to flex their muscles and put the game away with two touchdowns in the final quarter. The first came on their first possession of the quarter after stopping Whitmire on a fourth and short situation in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Starting quarterback Ty Floyd found Williams for a 30-yard touchdown reception through the air to give the Rebels a 21-0 lead.

Brice Ruff put the game away in the final two minutes with a long 29-yard rushing touchdown that tucked their rivals into bed before 10:00 p.m. on a Friday night. The Rebels got their revenge and celebrated as they picked up their first win of the season. Head coach Chris Arnoult spoke about how dynamic his backfield played in the game.

“We have about three or four backs that can do some special things when they get the ball, but they need someone to block for them. Our offensive line played much better tonight, including our freshman that started at left tackle for us tonight,” Arnoult said.

The offensive line was not the only dominant front in this game for the Rebels. The defensive line played great as well and held the Wolverines rushing attack in check.

“Our defensive line is a strength of our team, we knew that coming into the season and this game. We returned all our starters from our defensive line this season and that group will be even better now that it is starting to cool down,” said Arnoult.

As for the Wolverines, they have a lot of things to figure out. One of those things will be how to get their stars back healthy and keep them healthy. For the last two seasons, that has been their road block as a team. The small school just doesn’t have enough bodies and a lot of their talented players are force to play both sides of the ball.

“Well one we got to get healthy. We played a lot of guys both ways and it wore us down in the third and fourth quarter. We gone create things, like blocking assignments we missed here and there, and figuring out what we want to do in certain scenarios,” said Wolverines head coach Andrew Campbell.

He continued, “We have a lot of packages that work. But like I just told them, they don’t quit. There was plenty of times in the game where they could’ve quit, but no. Them jokers kept fighting. I apologized to my defensive coaches who put together a great game plan and held them for awhile but we missed some chances on offense in the first half. We gone let it hurt tonight and come back to work on Monday.”

Whitmire will be back in action on Sept. 13 at home against Greenwood Christian. Mid-Carolina hit the road to take on North Central next Friday night.