Whitehall football hits on all cylinders in romp over Orchard View

WHITEHALL — Finishing drives was the mantra of the Whitehall offense heading into Friday's game against Orchard View, and the Vikings answered the call with five first-half touchdowns on the way to a dominating 48-22 win to open West Michigan Conference Lakes play.

The Vikings (1-1, 1-0 WMC Lakes) seized momentum immediately when Liam Leeke recovered a bad Cardinal snap on the first play of the game and took it in for the touchdown. That was the first of four times in a row Whitehall scored to open the contest.

Quarterback Cole Essebaggers was the main engine of the offense, rushing for an impressive 217 yards, most of them in the first half, and throwing or running for four first-half scores. One of those touchdown runs, from 15 yards out, came on a fourth-and-8, showing off the Viking coaches' confidence in their young signal-caller.

Essebaggers was the first to credit an impressive offensive line that gave him massive holes to run through all night.

"They really stepped up this week," Essebaggers said. "During practices, our intensity was way (higher) than it was the week prior. Our guys up front, especially our sophomore (Billy Darke), stepped up a lot in this game."

Essebaggers didn't do that much throwing, in part because of the wind and in part because the run game was working so well, but he did show off his arm at the end of the first half, tossing a jump ball pass to the end zone for Ayden Mendoza. The star high jumper showed off his athleticism by battling through pass interference by his Cardinal defender and grabbing the scoring toss to make it 35-6. (He's also the team's kicker and was 6-of-7 on extra points in the game.)

"It's really great to see Ayden Mendoza come to life as far as being a deep threat on the opposite side, because with everybody trying to bracket and go over to Corde (Anderson), hopefully we can build off that and they can't do that anymore and we'll be more balanced," Vikings' coach Tony Sigmon said.

The Whitehall defense, meanwhile, didn't have to deal with OV's star quarterback, Saginaw Valley State commit Peyton Babbitt, as he was injured the previous week. However, that doesn't diminish a dominant performance by the Viking starting defensive unit, which didn't allow the Cardinals to run a play in their territory until the fourth quarter.

Anderson provided the biggest numbers, with nine tackles, 3.5 of them for a loss, and a sack. Sigmon said it helped the senior pass rusher, who recently announced his own college commitment to Ferris State, that teammate Caden Bowyer was taking up a lot of space in the middle.

"Maybe the unsung hero of our defense, when you're watching the film and watching the game, was probably Caden Bowyer," Sigmon said. "He forced a couple of bad snaps. I felt like every time I was looking (at) the end of the play, matter-of-factly, Caden had four or five offensive linemen on him and he was a yard and a half to two yards in the backfield. He really stepped up in a big way."

Bowyer's presence, in addition to Babbitt's absence, was likely a factor in OV having all kinds of trouble just getting going in the first half. Five times in the first three quarters, the Cardinals committed an unforced fumble, with four of them coming directly off the snap, forcing quarterback Kenyon McCauley to fall on the ball for a big loss. Later in the game, OV began snapping the ball directly to one of its most dynamic players, Ca'Mari Reese, with better results, albeit with victory in hand for the Vikes. Reese had a kickoff return score and a rushing score in the game.

After Essebaggers carried the bulk of the load rushing in the first half, Leeke largely took over in the second, and ended the night with 72 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground. He's the latest in a long line of Viking middle-weight wrestlers to show off their athletic gifts at the running back position.

Having a night where so much went well was a nice boost to the Vikings after a tough week one game, and should provide a boost as they prepare for another big-time clash in week three against Zeeland West.

"It's a big deal," Sigmon said. "We don't get a 30-game schedule. We get nine of them. Every win is a little bit sweeter. Every loss is a little bit harder."

Both Sigmon and Essebaggers noted that the 2024 district champ Vikings started their season the same way this team has so far, with a loss to Unity Christian and a win over Orchard View. Whitehall would like to deviate from the script next week, given the 2024 team's defeat to Zeeland West.

It wasn't all perfect for Whitehall - two drives ended with OV fumble recoveries - but the best may be yet to come.

"I would like to see some turnovers cleaned up," Sigmon said. "I'd like to see some of the execution things cleaned up at times. That's going to be a huge deal next week, and really for the entire season. When it comes to those types of things, I definitely want to make sure we are moving forward.  (But) it's really good to be 1-0 in our conference right now."