Woodland rolls past Hudson’s Bay

WOODLAND — Eli Whitmire could only smile at the irony of the situation.

He and his Woodland teammates scored so quickly in their 50-0 Greater St. Helens 2A League victory over Hudson’s Bay on Friday night, the Beavers senior missed out on tying a school record shared by his dad, Jack.

“Nothing to be disappointed about,” said a smiling Whitmire, who scored five touchdowns in 18 minutes and amassed 289 all-purpose yards before calling it a night at halftime.

“I’m proud of our defense. That’s three games and zero scores on us. I’m proud of our O-line. They were getting upfield and made it so I could run pretty much wherever I wanted to. We just got too many points, so we had to slow things down in the second half.”

Whitmire had a shot at touchdown No. 6 late in the first half, which would have tied his father and Justin Leonard (2005) for most touchdowns in a game, but freshman quarterback Wyatt Harsh kept the ball on an option play for a 14-yard score that put the Beavers (3-0, 1-0) at 50 points.

That’s when they throttled down the attack and looked ahead to next week’s showdown at Ridgefield.

As it was, this matchup of teams making their debut in the 2A GSHL was over in the first 12 minutes.

Whitmire took the opening kickoff, ran from the left hashmark to the right sideline and sprinted untouched 83 yards to put Woodland ahead just 12 seconds into the game.

“Everyone just got their blocks, and I had nothing but daylight ahead,” he said.

After forcing a Bay punt, Trevor Huddleston made it 15-0 on Woodland’s first play from scrimmage, taking a fly sweep around the left side and going 77 yards to the end zone.

Whitmire then scored three more first-quarter touchdowns on runs of 2 and 35 yards, followed by a 22-yard pass from Harsh, and it was 36-0 before Bay (1-2, 0-1) ever crossed midfield.

“They’re a good football team,” said Eagles co-coach Andy Meyer. “We just pick up the pieces.”

This is one league game. We’ve got another tough game next week (at La Center), but we’re going to regroup and we’ll be up for the challenge.”

Whitmire scored his fifth TD at 5:50 of the second quarter on another 35-yard run, and then went to find his dad behind the Woodland bench to celebrate.

“I really didn’t think it would,” Whitmire said when asked if he thought Friday would be such a special night. “It was just a good night for Woodland football.”

WOODLAND 50, HUDSON’S BAY 0

Hudson’s Bay 0 0 0 0— 0

Woodland 36 14 0 0—50

First Quarter

W — Eli Whitmire 83 kickoff return (Wyatt Harsh pass from Troy Flanagan)

W — Trevor Huddleston 77 run (Tylor Bishop kick)

W — Whitmire 2 run (Bishop kick)

W — Whitmire 35 run (Bishop kick)

W — Whitmire 22 pass from Harsh (Bishop kick)

Second Quarter

W — Whitmire 35 run (Bishop kick)

W — Harsh 14 run (Bishop kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Hudson’s Bay: Jeremy Matheny 9-(minus 1), Tristan Maxwell 2-10, Stone Sabourin 2-(minus 3), Nehemiah McDougal 1-7, Cody Fiscus 1-3, Julio Vara 1-1, Elijah Fishel 1-(minus 4), Camren Hyde-Moore 1-(minus 6), team 1-(minus 17). Woodland: Whitmire 13-163, Hunter Raney 6-24, Bishop 5-2, Huddleston 1-77, Harsh 1-14, Thomas Brower 2-(minus 8), Sebastian Martinez 1-(minus 5), team 1-(minus 1).

PASSING — Hudson’s Bay: Matheny 7-15-4-59. Woodland: Harsh 2-5-0-32, Brower 2-2-0-36.

RECEIVING — Hudson’s Bay: Anthony Sanchez 3-17, Victor Gray 2-16, Maxwell 1-15. Woodland: Paul Castro 1-28, Whitmire 1-22, Ben Clevenger 1-10, Bishop 1-8.