The West Henderson Falcon football team won their third game of the season against the East Henderson Eagles on Friday, Sept. 6, 41-10.
“Any time you play a county school everything is more on the line,” Head Coach Paul Whitaker said. “We never will actually know if we’re prepared or not because stuff like turnovers and penalties can hurt you but we just keep playing West High football like we should.”
In the first two minutes of the game, senior Austin Jenkins ran 40 yards for the first touchdown of the night. The Falcons continued their hot streak throughout the first quarter with three more touchdowns. The Falcon defense was able to completely shut out the Eagle offense, making the score 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.
“We challenged the offensive line this week in practice,” Whitaker said. “The coaches felt like we didn’t open enough holes for our running backs last game against Hendersonville. So the offensive line really stepped up and created some big openings for our running backs.”
West continued to run up the scoreboard with the Eagle quarterback throwing a pick six to Jenkins at the start of the second quarter.
“Getting the pick six wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be,” Jenkins said. “I think (East is) a decent team, but our defense can really step up when we need it to. I was definitely excited; it was my first pick six of the year, and hopefully I can get some more.”
With a back-and-forth the rest of the quarter, there wasn’t much offense from either team. That gave the defense more time to shine as the Falcons recovered a fumble on their own 10-yard line, keeping the Eagles’ offense caged. The score was 35-0 at the end of the first half.
“We set goals each week on how many turnovers we want and how many defensive touchdowns we want,” Defensive Coordinator Jason Livingston said. “This week we wanted two turnovers and one defensive touchdown, which we got, so I was really proud of them for that.”
The West offense looked like they couldn’t be stopped as they continued to score on the East defense in the third quarter. The game was beginning to slow down and the Falcons were up 41-0. The coach then put in the backups to finish out the rest of the quarter.
“The half I played definitely wasn’t my best, but we were still able to score, and I’m glad I got to help the team by putting more points on the board,” junior Will Parker said. “When I was out there playing it just felt really good to know everyone had my back and was supporting me.”
The fourth quarter was a defensive battle from both sides. East got points on the scoreboard with a field goal in the final five minutes of the quarter, and then with a rushing touchdown in the last minute, but the Falcons won the game 41-10.
West Henderson remains undefeated with a 3-0 record, which is the best record in the conference. The Falcons will travel to North Buncombe on Friday, Sept. 13 to take on the Black Hawks.
By: Stone Hogan, Sports Editor
