Julius Spradling takes over quarterback after Ethan New was taken out for injury protocol. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Xenia’s Deaunte White scored a school-record seven touchdowns on the way to 47-7 win against Sidney. An injury to Yellow Jacket quarterback Ethan New stalled the Sidney offense, in the second quarter, which paved the road for the Bucs to pull away.
Sidney, OH – A cold front rolling through Sidney a few hours before kickoff set a fitting scene for the gloomy things to come for the Yellow Jackets.
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
The gloominess began at the opening kickoff when Xenia recovered their own kick and didn’t relent until after Xenia’s Deaunte White had rushed for his seventh touchdown.
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But neither the on-again-off-again drizzle, nor the 48-7 final score marked the low point of the night for Sidney. The worst of the worst came in the second quarter on 3rd and 23 when a crushing sack injured senior quarterback Ethan New. New walked off the field on his own power but did not return to the game.
The energy in the stadium briefly belonged to the fans and players in black and gold. Hayden Westerbeck recovered a fumble to stop Xenia in the red zone on the Bucs’ first drive, Fleming gave the Jackets a 7-0 lead, then a muffed kickoff pinned Xenia on their own six-yard line. But White and the offensive line flipped the switch, ripping a run out to the 39-yard line, there would be no flipping the switch back off.
Tank Fleming takes it to the house with a 79 yard run on the the ‘Jackets’ first drive.
Before New’s exit, it seemed Sidney had a chance to keep pace in a shootout, as they did a week ago in their 67-55 win over Stebbins. Instead, the offense stalled out and couldn’t give a break to an already sputtering defense.
Xenia imposed its will on offense, averaging 10.1 yards per carry, and relentlessly punishing Sidney’s aspiring tacklers at every level. The Bucs racked up 496 yards on the ground, with 388 belonging to White. Xenia shoved the Sidney defensive line around, particularly on the interior offensive line composed of Christian Johnson, AJ Anderson, and Gunnar Stephen.
“We have to do a better job of being physical at the point of attack and our gap integrity,” Sidney Coach Dave Taynor said. “We’re looking around blocks a lot more than we should … You can’t just look for the ball. We gotta do a lot better, there’s no doubt about that.”
When defenders got their hands on the ball carrier it made little difference. White shrugged off arm-tackle attempts repeatedly, raking in yards after contact.
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“My offensive line was giving me good blocks and I was just hitting the holes hard,” White said. “I’m a very aggressive runner. If I get going and get to top speed, it’s hard to stop me.”
Sidney’s offense, despite putting only seven points on the board, can’t be criticized so harshly. When healthier, they’ve looked adequate at their worst, prolific at times against Bellefontaine and Stebbins. Tonight on their first drive, Tank Fleming hauled in a screen pass from New, shook a defender, and dusted the other 21 players on the field for a 79-yard touchdown to grab a 7-0 lead. But no team can lose a quarterback like New and not miss a beat. Julius Spradling, stepped in as the backup quarterback but had only taken a couple of snaps at QB in practice, as he has also battled injury.
Deaunte’ White dives into the end zone for his first of seven touchdowns of the night.
“We were in at halftime trying to draw up a couple of things for him to be able to throw because he hadn’t repped any of it,” Taynor said.
Spradling made plays with his legs, and all things considered put together a decent, albeit scoreless, performance.
Sidney couldn’t run the ball with nearly the same efficiency as they have been this year once Xenia didn’t feel the threat of New’s arm. It finished the night with 115 rushing yards on 24 carries, a figure that could’ve been much uglier if not for some exceptional scampers by Spradling in the second half.
White and his seven touchdowns deservingly stole the show, but Isaiah Creditt dealt plenty of damage as a changeup out of the backfield, accruing 101 yards on 11 carries, all while keeping White’s stamina high, lowering his pitch count.
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Xenia didn’t pack in their offense with extra tight ends and jumbo packages, but instead spread three receivers out on most snaps, forcing Sidney to pull defenders out of the box to cover. Quarterback Gavin McManus made the Jackets respect those wideouts by operating the passing game efficiently. He completed 8 of his 11 passes, mostly for modest gains, but still enough to keep Yellow Jacket defensive backs from getting greedy and creeping into the box.
Novi Jones is taken down by a foot from a Xenia Buccaneer.
White’s sixth touchdown moved the game into running-clock territory, and the quickened 2nd half melted away, but not before he broke the school record by crossing the chalk for the seventh time.
Xenia moves into an early lead of the Valley division, finding itself in a similar place to the last two years. In 2022, they ran the table, finishing 10-0 in the regular season before a stunning first-round playoff upset. In 2023, the Bucs won their first four games, but when they ran into the meat of the MVL, they faltered and dropped 6 out of 7.
“We’re gonna continue to keep being where our feet are,” Xenia Coach Maurice Harden said. “Our goal is to be 1-0 at the end of each week.”
Sidney has some demons to exorcise, especially on defense. The Jackets play Fairborn, West Carrolton, and Greenville, a stretch that could allow them to get the train back on the rails. Then they face a grueling four weeks against Tipp, Butler, Piqua, and Troy. Hopefully the majority, or entirety, of the rest of their season includes a healthy Ethan New. He’s about as valuable to his team as any QB in the MVL, and tonight proved that.
If a healthy New isn’t in the cards, Julius Spradling will find ways to make plays. But if the tackling doesn’t improve, it might not matter. They’ve allowed 50.3 points per game so far, and three games into the season is awfully late to need such massive improvement. But with seven conference games still to play, better late than never, right?
Again…. Deaunte’ White takes in another six.
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