By Kris Freeman
White House Football

White House 31, Polk County 3 (The News Examiner)

Playing at home in the playoffs for the first time since 2004, the White House Blue Devils rolled out the red carpet for Polk County, with a 499-yard effort on total offense and a 31-3 first-round win.

DeMarqus Payne rushed 16 times for 187 yards and three touchdowns, including a 41-yard sprint to the endzone on the first drive of the game. He also picked off Polk County's Haden Browder on a leaping interception - and nearly had a second pick in the fourth quarter, jumping the route but dropping the ball for what would have been an untouched fourth score.

His tailback teammate Bryan Dixon was also brilliant, rushing 18 times for 171 yards and a touchdown, as the two combined for 358 of 397 rushing yards, the best output of the season. Payne eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the year, and Dixon needs just 79 more yards to give the Blue Devils two 1,000-yard backs. Quarterback Trox Greenwade completed 6-of-10 passes for 102 yards and now needs just 37 yards to also pass the 1,000-yard mark passing.

While the offensive output was a season high for yardage, the Blue Devils were dominating on defense, holding a Polk County team which averaged 334 yards per game to just 177 - most of which in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats were just 3-of-12 on third down and forced to punt five times. The lone points came on a 37-yard field goal by Mike Hammons to cut the lead to 14-3 in the second quarter.

For White House, it was the 16th straight year in the playoffs and 13th first round win in that span. The Blue Devil seniors played in their 50th career game and now have a 7-3 postseason record. The 2004 team went 3-0 at home, and White House will get at least one more home game when Greenbrier comes to town for a week 10 rematch Friday night.

If Pearl-Cohn were to beat Station Camp in the second round, White House would play at home through the remainder of the playoffs with continued wins.

Payne drove the hammer home in the playoff game Friday with a 41-yard run on the opening possession after the Blue Devils defense forced a three-and-out. But punter Hammons averaged 44 yards on five kicks and backed up White House inside the 10 before WHHS broke off an eight-play, 91-yard drive.

Payne scored from three yards out in the second quarter to cap a 10-play, 84-yard drive and put the Blue Devils up 14-0. Polk County closed the gap to 11 points, but Zack Trobaugh extended the lead before halftime again with a 26-yard field goal and a 17-3 advantage at the break.

Dixon completed a seven-play, 54-yard drive with a 29-yard run in the third quarter, and Matt Parker's 46-yard catch set up Payne for a score in the fourth quarter to end a seven-play, 73-yard march and put a 31-3 edge on the scoreboard.

Browder was held to 5-of-12 passing for Polk County, and the leading rusher for the Wildcats Zack Fletcher was limited to 15 yards. Hunter Raby carried 10 times for 44 yards to lead them in this game.

Parker led the team with eight tackles in the game, including a great play on Raby, stringing him out for a five-yard loss on a sweep. Walter Draper contributed seven stops and Eric Dorris, who broke through the line to punish Fletcher on the second series of the game, had six tackles with two for losses and three quarterback hurries. Adam Wiss also made six tackles and Michael Barrett added a late interception to seal the game to go with his four stops.

Kody Littles and Caleb Eidson added sacks for the Blue Devils as White House swarmed Browder on many of his 12 passing attempts.

Box Score (Final)
Polk County vs White House (11-09-2007 at White House, TN)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Polk County......... 0 3 0 0 - 3 Record: (7-4,4-2)
White House......... 7 10 7 7 - 31 Record: (8-3,5-1)
Scoring Summary: 1st 06:21 WH - DeMarqus Payne 41 yd run (Zack Trobaugh kick), 8-91 3:39, POLK 0 - WH 7 2nd 09:34 WH - DeMarqus Payne 3 yd run (Zack Trobaugh kick), 10-84 4:05, POLK 0 - WH 14 04:26 POLK - Mike Hammons 37 yd field goal, 11-59 5:05, POLK 3 - WH 14 00:26 WH - Zack Trobaugh 26 yd field goal, 11-71 4:00, POLK 3 - WH 17 3rd 05:06 WH - Bryan Dixon 29 yd run (Zack Trobaugh kick), 7-54 2:51, POLK 3 - WH 24 4th 11:35 WH - DeMarqus Payne 5 yd run (Zack Trobaugh kick), 7-73 3:00, POLK 3 - WH 31 POLK WH FIRST DOWNS................... 9 20 RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 34-150 48-397 PASSING YDS (NET)............. 27 102 Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 12-5-2 10-6-0 TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 46-177 58-499 Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0 Punt Returns-Yards............ 0-0 0-0 Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 6-119 1-24 Interception Returns-Yards.... 0-0 2-4 Punts (Number-Avg)............ 5-44.4 1-16.0 Fumbles-Lost.................. 1-0 1-1 Penalties-Yards............... 4-36 5-30 Possession Time............... 21:43 26:17 Third-Down Conversions........ 3 of 12 9 of 12 Fourth-Down Conversions....... 1 of 1 0 of 0 Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 1-2 3-4 Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 0-0 1-14 RUSHING: Polk County-Hunter Raby 10-44; Trevor Stephens 6-29; Sergie Foster 3-29; Justin Trew 3-21; Zack Fletcher 7-15; Jim Bob Maples 1-11; Cody Price 2-8; Haden Browder 1-7; John Brintnell 1-minus 14. White House-DeMarqus Payne 16-187; Bryan Dixon 18-171; Zach Byrd 3-12; Cody Allen 5-11; Trox Greenwade 2-10; Alfredo Louis 2-4; Walter Draper 1-1; Aussie Light 1-1. PASSING: Polk County-Haden Browder 5-12-2-27; John Brintnell 0-0-0-0. White House-Trox Greenwade 6-9-0-102; Aussie Light 0-1-0-0. RECEIVING: Polk County-Hunter Raby 3-2; Trevor Stephens 1-15; Zack Fletcher 1-10. White House-Chad Neal 2-38; Matt Parker 1-46; Chase Neal 1-8; DeMarrius Payne 1-5; Jeremy Barnes 1-5. INTERCEPTIONS: Polk County-None. White House-Michael Barrett 1-4; DeMarqus Payne 1-0. FUMBLES: Polk County-Zack Fletcher 1-0. White House-DeMarqus Payne 1-1. SACKS (UA-A): Polk County-None. White House-Caleb Eidson 1-0; Kody Littles 1-0. TACKLES (UA-A): Polk County-John Brintnell 1-0. White House-Matt Parker 5-3; Walter Draper 3-4; Eric Dorris 5-1; Adam Wiss 3-3; Michael Barrett 4-0; Donovan Jackson 2-2; Zack Duty 0-4; DeMarqus Payne 3-0; Jarrette Anderson 3-0; Thomas Aldridge 3-0; Chris Bolton 2-1; Zach Byrd 2-1; Jesse Guthrie 1-2; Chad Neal 0-3; Matt Mosley 2-0; Caleb Eidson 2-0; Kirk Fulghum 1-1; DeMarrius Payne 1-1; Kody Littles 1-1; Chase Neal 0-2; Colton James 1-0; Kaleb Ausbrooks 1-0; Bryan Dixon 0-1.

Series History

White House leads overall series, 2-0