Shelby football dominates up front, routs White Cloud in season opener

SHELBY — Shelby's new offensive line spent all summer hearing about how the Tigers' success would rest on their shoulders. Would their collective inexperience sink the defending district champions?

Bigger tests will come later, but it would be hard to give the position group anything less than an A+ after it paved the way for the Tigers to go 7-for-7 scoring touchdowns before taking a knee to end Friday's 54-6 domination of White Cloud in the season opener.

"They did amazing," quarterback Jaylin Henderson said. "I'm proud of every single one of them. We have a lot of younger (guys) that are putting in work at practice, and it paid off."

Henderson was the main beneficiary of all that blocking, racking up 234 yards rushing on only 13 carries and scoring four touchdowns. He also threw for a score, to Elijah Dashiell on a screen pass that Dashiell took 29 yards to pay dirt.

But early on, Henderson was also a participant in some blocking himself. On the first couple of drives, the ball was snapped to Brody Fessenden, the Tigers' other returning offensive star, and Henderson served as his lead blocker. Later, they swapped roles.

The alignment obviously helped ease the load on the young offensive line, but Shelby coach Jacob Tumele, at the helm for his first game, also liked the idea of sending the Tigers' most athletic players directly at an opponent's defense and seeing if they blinked.

"We kind of have a two-headed monster in the backfield with Brody Fessenden and Jaylin Henderson," Tumele said. "One guy is going to block for the other, and defenses are not going to like that. Jaylin's a 200-pound back coming right at you, and most people are going to try to step out of the way."

It took very little time for it to be clear what kind of game the Tigers could have. After forcing a three-and-out to start the game, the Tiger defense was rewarded when White Cloud's punt went almost nowhere - nine yards down the field. That led to Dashiell's first of two touchdowns, this one on the ground as Fessenden did a fine job carrying out a fake to make Indian foes believe he had the ball after Henderson and Dashiell lined up next to him in the backfield.

After Dashiell's two scores, White Cloud did work its way down the field, aided by penalties and three fourth-down conversions, for its only score of the game. The Indians' freshman quarterback, Colton Jones, was slippery at times and hard to bring down. But defensive coordinator Derrick Phillips quickly adjusted, and the Tigers made Jones' life difficult the rest of the way.

"He did a good job of adjusting when he needed to, to take away the quarterback and try to limit their opportunity to be able to scramble around and make throws down the field," Tumele said of Phillips. "It's hard to play defense and cover for eight seconds."

Henderson took over the offense much of the rest of the way, breaking free for big gains on quarterback off tackle runs. Like Fessenden, who had 104 yards and a touchdown of his own, Henderson's speed and strength makes him an unenviable task for any defender.

"My line was giving me good holes," Henderson said. "Then, after I read the blocks, I just make a move, find green grass and then get in the end zone."

If there was one thing to fix, it was penalties. The Tigers were whistled for 11 of them, for 100 yards, a couple of which proved to be key in helping White Cloud score its only touchdown. In tougher games, that will be something Tumele will need improved.

But on a night where Tumele secured his first win as a Tiger, the celebration was on and that could wait - for a brief moment, anyway. Mason County Central is next, and the Tigers haven't beaten MCC since 2013, a string Tumele hopes to end.

"We know what Dave Smith is going to do," Tumele said of his Spartan counterpart. "They're going to run the ball right at you and be physical up front and set the tone. We're just going to try to maximize what we do well here at Shelby."