Wakefield football
Wolverines roll over Green Hope 31-7
After shaking off a little rust early on — and perhaps some jitters — the Wakefield football team ran like a well-oiled machine en route to a 31-7 victory over Green Hope in Friday night's season opener.
Both defenses were a major factor early, but when the Wolverines forced a Green Hope punt late in the first quarter, momentum swung in Wakefield's favor.
Trip Foreman returned the punt inside the 20-yard line, putting the Falcons' backs to the wall and the Wolverines in position to take an early lead.
Green Hope rose to the challenge, however, forcing Wakefield to make a field goal attempt. But the Wolverines were given a second chance when the Falcons received a roughing the kicker penalty.
The miscue presented Wolverines' head coach J.D Dinwiddie with his first big decision of the 2009 season — whether or not to take points off the board and go for the end zone.
Dinwiddie elected to take the chance, and sophomore running back Courtney Crews made the decision pay off.
A few plays later, Crews dove into end zone from five-yards out, giving Wakefield a 7-0 lead. The score got the ball rolling for the Wolverines.
Niklas Sade later tacked on a field goal, and first-year varsity QB Patrick Johnstone hit David Gibson on a touchdown pass covering nearly 50 yards. The two scores pushed the Wolverines' lead to 17-0.
Green Hope tacked on a touchdown in the third quarter, but the Wolverines responded in the fourth, with two scores of their own.
Foreman broke another punt return open, this time reaching the end zone. The senior receiver later added a 26-yard touchdown reception from Johnstone.
While the Wolverines pulled out a 24-point victory, Dinwiddie still saw plenty of room for improvement.
"I wasn't real happy with running game," the Wakefield coach said. "We were about a block away a lot of times from getting the big one, so it was a little disappointing. We weren't picking up exactly who we were supposed to be a lot of times."
Each Wakefield carry seemed to chip off about four or five yards, but the missed assignments mentioned by Dinwiddie — coupled with a few penalties — left one wondering if the final score could have been worse.
"We had some penalties tonight that cost us about three scores," Dinwiddie said. "We made typical first-game mistakes."
Dinwiddie didn't make excuses for the inconsistency on offense, citing the fact that the team was "hit-and-miss all week in practice" as the culprit.
But there certainly was plenty of positives mixed in with the bad, too.
Johnstone finished 9 for 17, with 143 yards and two touchdowns, and Crews rushed 24 times for 62 yards.
On the defensive side, the Wolverines had no such trouble executing. At half time, Wakefield had allowed only one first down and, more importantly, no points.
Defensive Coordinator Jamie Ayer's 3-3-5 scheme zoned in on the run-heavy Green Hope attack and barely budged.
"Defensively, I thought we played pretty darn well," Dinwiddie said. "It's a new defense for us. Overall, I was happy with our defensive effort. We are really fast on defense."
And when the defense forced Green Hope to punt, Wakefield's special teams — especially Foreman — repeatedly put the Wolverines in good position.
"I thought our special teams was outstanding tonight," the coach explained. "We work on special teams everyday. Our kids take a lot of pride in special teams. We have some room for improvement, but overall it was our best execution all night.
Now the Wolverines focus on Friday's away game at Holly Springs.
And Dinwiddie was already looking toward his practice schedule Friday night.
"We're gonna put our heads down and get right back to work on Monday and fix all of our mistakes," he said.
