Norse offense grounded in loss to Mustangs
Brock Sluga of Whitehall made his way up the field after breaking a couple of tackles during their game against Melrose-Mindoro on Friday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Hopes of going into the offseason with three straight wins came to an end as the Whitehall football team’s offense struggled in a 27-7 loss to Melrose-Mindoro.
Whitehall had won its last two games, but had a difficult time finishing drives. They trailed 14-7 at halftime, but had two second half drives stall, while Mel-Min scored touchdowns to put the game away.
The Norse defense forced a punt on the first drive of the second half. A run by Devon McCune brought Whitehall to midfield, but the drive ended there when McCune was stopped for a loss on fourth down.
The Mustangs used Carter Sacia to get down the field before calling for a naked bootleg by quarterback Ty Zeman who ran for an 11-yard touchdown on a third-and-seven play. The point after made the score 21-7 with 1:18 left in the third quarter.
After Whitehall was forced to punt the ball back to the Mustangs, the road team added another touchdown. The Mustangs again used Sacia to get down the field before he broke free for a touchdown run that put the game out of reach.
No statistics or further information about the game was sent to the Times prior to press time.
In the first year under coach Tyler Bortle, the Norse finished 2-7 overall and 2-5 in Dairyland Conference play. Throughout the season, they had a number of games that were close for at least a half before Whitehall ran out of gas. They entered the season with just 22 varsity players and suited up 25 on Friday night. The team had just four seniors and had to rely on freshmen and sophomores to fill key positions throughout the season.
