Whiting tops Calumet

Updated: October 1, 2011 4:36PM

WHITING — The little things made all the difference for Whiting in its 32-8 win over Calumet on Senior Night.

The Oilers took advantage of five turnovers in the first half as they scored three offensive touchdowns on drives all less than 50 yards racing out to a 20-2 halftime lead. Whiting only collected 124 yards of offense in the first half (222 yards total) as defense and special teams put the team in excellent starting position on the field.

“We’re going to get weather like this,” Whiting coach Jeff Cain said of the 40-degree temperature with a howling wind. “We were on the practice field all week; we didn’t get on the field until tonight. So it was kind of fitting that it rained right before the game and kind of muttered us up a little bit.”

Whiting (5-2, 4-1) went three-and-out on its first drive. But the Oilers defense put the ball right back in sophomore quarter A.J. Veloz’ hands as it forced a fumble on the very first play from scrimmage against the Warriors.

That’s when Veloz went to work, hitting sophomore Keegan Rooke on a 30-yard screen play which set up a 2-yard TD run by freshman Ethan Young for the first score of the game.

Whiting followed that up by recovering a short kickoff and scoring a touchdown on its next possession, capped by a 15-yard pass from Veloz to Justin Jendreas with 4:50 left in the first quarter.

Just like that, Calumet (1-6, 1-4) trailed 13-0 after having run just one offensive play and recording two turnovers.

“It would have been a totally different game,” Calumet coach Ivan Zimmer said of his team’s first half mistakes. “I would venture to say if you turn the ball over five times in any ballgame, you’re in trouble. We should have been up in the first half. We work on ball security and stuff and we’ve had very few (turnovers) all year.”

“Give their defense credit. We’ll go back to the drawing board on that. What could go wrong, did go wrong for us tonight.”

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