Freshman White leads Ringgold to road win
The Ringgold Tigers and their fans got a glimpse of the future on Friday night.
And the sight wasn’t half bad. A flare-up of a recurring shoulder problem put Tigers senior quarterback Cole Kibler on the sidelines Friday in Chatsworth against the winless Murray County Indians, leaving freshman Kyle White at the helm. While timing and touch left something to be desired, White ran for one touchdown and threw for two more as the Tigers routed the winless Indians, 49-7.
Ringgold coach Robert Akins explained that Kibler was in uniform and available if there were dire circumstances.
“We’re hoping that, with the bye week, it’ll improve enough that Cole can finish the season,” Akins explained. “If you look at the second half film (from last week’s Sonoraville game), it really seemed to affect some of his throws.”
Kibler’s backup was ready and biding his time as a starting linebacker for the Tigers. White, one of the team’s leading tacklers, relinquished his defensive duties to run the show against the Indians, but his defensive mates took care of him in the form of four first-half turnovers, each one setting up a Ringgold touchdown.
The first turnover was the first of two picks by Ringgold’s ballhawking defensive back, Blake Goldsmith. The senior, whom Akins credited with providing a much-needed jolt of team lead- ership at halftime of the Calhoun game, made the grab of Kaleb Jones’ pass in Murray territory, giving White and the offense a short field to deal with.
White set the drive in motion with a 12-yard run on first down, and then hit Dylan Wright with a 5-yard scoring strike with 4:52 left in the first period. That was notable because the Tigers scored again exactly 28 seconds later on a White 7-yard run. In between, Mccain Mangum pounced on a Murray fumble on the first play after the kickoff.
The Tigers turned a similar double whammy in the second quarter.
This time it was Goldsmith pouncing on a Murray fumble near midfield, returning it 10 yards to set up White again. The freshman gladly accepted the gift, completing a 22-yard pass to Wright on third-and-15 to set up Dalton Green’s 4-yard TD run 39 seconds before halftime.
But Murray, which was out of timeouts, inexplicably put up a poor pass instead of running out the first-half clock and Goldsmith gladly accepted the gift in the form of his second interception – his third turnover – of the half.
It left time for White to complete a jump-ball touchdown pass to Pete Brower. The gift touchdown came with only 13 seconds left before intermission.
Bryton Mccann got into the act with a pair of third-quarter rushing touchdowns of 4 and 7 yards. The first came at the end of an 8-play, 65-yard sustained drive, and the second after an Andre Tarver sack of Jones at the 20.
The fourth quarter featured a running clock, but there was still enough time for Murray to march 75 yards against Ringgold’s second team. Brendan Owenby, who bulled his way to a gamebest 144 yards, scored the Indi- ans’ lone touchdown.
The Tigers attempted to run out the clock, but instead had a revelation in the form of running back Price Pennington, who broke a 33-yard run and was rewarded with the night’s final touchdown with 2:40 left in the contest.
Ringgold (3-4, 2-3) is off this Friday. They will head to Tallapoosa on Oct. 19 for a very important Region 6-AAA contest against Haralson County and the state’s leading rusher, Treylon Sheppard.