Rebels squeeze out win with a late second half push to overcome Whitmire

PROSPERITY, S.C. — The second part of rivalry week in Newberry County featured undefeated Whitmire and win-less Mid-Carolina. The rivalry game didn’t disappoint, but the Wolverines(2-1) fell 17-6 to the Rebels(1-2) in a hard fought battle on Friday night.

The Wolverines returned back to Lon Strong Stadium on the campus of Mid-Carolina High School for the latest edition of the Rebels-Wolverines rivalry game on Friday, September 5th. In 2023, the Wolverines pulled off an upset to beat Mid-Carolina for the first time in nearly 30 years. They attempted to repeat especially after the Rebels went to their home field in 2024 and won. The home team would have to do it without starting quarterback Davis Ruff who got injured against Newberry in week two of the season.

This game started out much like the 2023 game and it was a defensive battle the entire first half. The two teams were scoreless at the end of the first quarter, but Mid-Carolina finally put their best drive together of the half that began at the end of the first quarter.

Then, the Rebels used their strong rushing attack to drive the ball down the field, and into the red zone. The Wolverines’ defense and a holding penalty helped keep the Rebels out of the end zone. They settled for a 30-yard field goal from Ryker Woolstenhulme to take a 3-0 lead in the early parts of the second quarter.

Whitmire began to show signs of life on offense on the very next offensive drive after giving up the field goal. Landon Wulf picked up some tough yards on the ground to convert a critical fourth down, but that still wasn’t enough to keep their drive going and they were forced to punt. Also, Wolverines starting quarterback Kaden Malpass went down on the drive to add insult to injury and didn’t return to the game. He appeared to have a severe high ankle sprain on his right ankle.

The home team had another strong drive after forcing the punt, but it again stalled with a red zone turnover this time. Senior wide receiver Jaquon McKinney made a tough grab across the middle of the field on the 19-yard line, but had the ball punched out by a Wolverines’ defender and the visitors recovered.

Mid-Carolina defense held up and didn’t allow Whitmire to capitalize off the momentum shift. The Rebels took a 3-0 lead into halftime.

The second half started off much like the first as the defensive battle continued between the two teams. Whitmire had another sack to end the first drive for Mid-Carolina in the second half. Both teams exchanged punts to start the second half, but Mid-Carolina started to mix the run and the pass to move the ball down the field on their second offensive drive of third quarter.

Cash Knight got the Rebels in the red zone on a short pass where he shook off a defender and ran down the sidelines for a a 30-yard catch and run. Then, the Mid-Carolina went into their bags of trick to catch the Wolverines’ defense sleeping. Wyatt Mazza took the the hand off but pulled up for a pass and found a wide open receiver in the end zone. He then kept the hand off to convert the two-point attempt and take a 11-0 lead.

Whitmire’s offense struggled for majority of the third quarter, but got a spark late in the quarter after Wulf found daylight for a 30-yard run.

Mid-Carolina took a 11-0 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Wolverines’ offense was threatening to score. The fourth quarter started with Whitmire in the red zone. They were able to get the ball inside of the 10-yard line, but was stuffed on a fourth and one rushing attempt.

The Wolverines luck hadn’t run out because they were able to force a fumble inside of their own 25-yard line. Unfortunately, Whitmire couldn’t take advantage of the great field position and failed to score inside the red zone again.

Mid-Carolina was able to take some time off the clock with a long drive. The drive stalled and they were forced to punt. Their punter had trouble handling the snap and it resulted in a scramble for the ball that eventually landed in the hands of a Whitmire special teams player. Finally, the Wolverines were able to take advantage of the great field position yet again and Deangelo Ruff scored on a three-yard touchdown run after Wulf put them in the red zone with two long runs.

Whitmire failed on the two-point conversion attempt, but still cut the deficit down to a one score game, and now trailed 11-6.

The Rebels immediately responded with along scoring drive led by Woolstenhulme. He refused to go down and wore down the Wolverines’ defense with his tough run after tough run. He capped it off with a 23-yard rushing touchdown to extend their lead.

Whitmire had one last desperation drive in the last two minutes of the game, but they couldn’t get any late game magic.

“They don’t quit and they fight. Like I just told them in the huddle, I can live and die with what you did. You poured it out on the line and I can live with that. They don’t quit and I love each and every one of them. They bust their tails, got after it and I responded after I challenged them at halftime,” said Wolverines head coach Andrew Campbell. “We had a chance to win the game but it was a couple of mistakes here and there. We were inside the 20 twice and didn’t come away with any points. They fought and the defense played their butts off. I am so proud of them and I know its hard to be proud after a loss but I am.”

Despite the loss, the Wolverines defense has still only allowed three touchdowns this season.

“Well, they have some good running backs over there. Number 10 is tough and 20 is tough so we knew we were going to get some run heavy stuff since they were dealing with some adversity themselves. Our front seven just go to work and I don’t know if you noticed but we rolled a lot of in d-lineman in there. We got so many good defensive lineman we can roll in there and they all have the same mindset where they just go to work and they don’t mind clocking in,” said Campbell.

The Rebels finally got their first win of the season after two brutal weeks to start the season and scored the most points in a game so far this season.

“I feel like we played much better tonight on offense, but we still made some mistakes. I feel like we left some points out there on the field, but they don’t quit and just get after, so does Whitmire. Their coach does a great job with them and we been preaching all week how hard nose that team is and they got to see tonight,” said Rebels’ head coach Chris Arnoult.

Mid-Carolina will be back at home on Friday, September 12th to host North Central. Whitmire will be back on the road next Friday, September to take on Greenwood Christian.