Warriors ready for battle in home opener

There will already be plenty of emotion at Dee Harris Field before the White County Warriors ever line up across from the York Institute Dragons Friday night.

It is the home opener. It is Senior Night. And after opening the season with a convincing road win over Soddy Daisy, the Warriors finally get a chance to play in front of their home crowd. For head coach David Foster, the challenge is making sure all of that energy works for his team rather than against it.

“We need to not ride that rollercoaster,” Foster said. “We want to play a four-quarter game from start to finish.”

That fits with a message Foster has repeated to his team throughout his year-plus tenure as the head coach at White County High School: control what you can control.

This week, that includes how the Warriors handle the emotions surrounding Senior Night. It also includes how they respond to playing without sophomore Azlan Mathurin, who will miss Friday’s game after being ejected from last week's season opener.

Mathurin still finished that game as White County's leading tackler while recording two sacks and forcing two fumbles. Replacing that production will take more than one player.

“We have a next-man-up philosophy,” Foster said. “Injuries are as much a part of the game as blocking and tackling. We played a lot of guys last week, and we are confident in the guys who are going to step up. Azlan is tough to replace, but we’re prepared.”

And White County will need to be prepared defensively against a York team that wants to make every possession count.

The Dragons are now led by veteran head coach Mark Pemberton, who won a state championship while at Knoxville Catholic and had successful stops at several other programs across the state, including Brentwood, Macon County and Rhea County.

His York offense operates out of the Wing-T and, much like Soddy Daisy last week, wants to control the clock and grind away at a defense. The blocking schemes will be different, however, and Foster said the Dragons are more capable through the air than the label of a run-heavy offense might suggest.

York used the screen game extensively against Stone Memorial in their season opener and has enough variety in its passing attack to punish a defense that becomes too focused on stopping the run.

There is another wrinkle when the Dragons cross midfield.

“Over the 50, it’s four-down territory for Pemberton,” Foster, who has faced the York coach two other times in the pair's coaching careers, said.

That willingness to use all four downs can extend drives and leave a defense with little room for error.

White County's offense will have its own challenges figuring out exactly what the Dragons intend to show defensively.

York has primarily operated from a 3-4 look, but that wasn't what the Warriors saw when the two teams met a year ago. The Dragons instead came out in a 5-3, leaving White County preparing for several possibilities Friday night.

Foster has also noticed how quickly York breaks the defensive huddle and gets set, limiting the amount of time an offense has to make adjustments at the line. The answer for White County is to match that urgency.

“We want to be sure to get lined up quickly and get our eyes where they need to be,” Foster said.

While Friday night is going to be a battle, the Warriors know they can have success against York.

White County won last year's Week 2 meeting 35-14 despite Cole Sims being held to what was, by his standards, a quiet 91 rushing yards. Tucker Pinion completed five of six passes for 127 yards and three touchdowns, with Bryson Hogg hauling in four catches for 88 yards and two scores as the Warriors took advantage of York's focus on their run game.

The defense added five tackles for loss and three sacks, and, then freshman, Tristan Cavanah stopped a Dragon drive with an interception. Lex Winfree provided one of the biggest plays of the night, forcing and recovering a fumble before taking it 60 yards for a touchdown.

There were mistakes mixed in with the big plays, however. White County was penalized nine times for 57 yards, including penalties that wiped away a couple of long runs.

“We definitely want to play a cleaner game than last time,” Foster said.

For all the different formations, blocking schemes and adjustments that could come Friday night, Foster eventually brought the conversation back to another one of the simple messages he has preached to his team.

Block. Tackle. Win.

White County wants to be a physical, ball-control football team. York wants much the same thing. That means Foster expects a battle when the Warriors finally take their home field for the first time this season.

“We have to be physical at the point of attack,” Foster said. “Beat blocks.”

And with two teams intent on doing much of the same thing, the one that does it better may be the one celebrating under the first Friday Night Lights of a new season at Dee Harris Field.