Murphy, Bobcats take control early, win 48-0 over Madison

By DOUG DONNELLY

MADISON TOWNSHIP – Logan Murphy made the most of his touches Friday night.

The Whiteford senior running back rushed for 164 yards on just 10 carries, scoring three touchdowns and picking up a pair of two-point conversions as the Bobcats rolled to a 48-0 win over the Madison Trojans in a Tri-County Conference match-up.

In doing so, Murphy became just the second running back in Whiteford history to reach 3,000 career yards. He now has 3,157 career yards on the ground, just 170 yards behind the Bobcats’ all-time leading rusher Jesse Kiefer.

Murphy helped get the Bobcat offense in gear early, scoring on an 8-yard run on Whiteford’s first possession. Bradyn Clark-Gilmore caught an 18-yard pass from Ty Eitniear for Whiteford’s second touchdown and Zack Bertz made it 24-0 before Murphy’s season-long 71-yard touchdown ended the first quarter scoring.

Hunter Lake and Murphy added second-quarter touchdowns for the Bobcats, who took a knee on its final first half possession and ran just one play of offense in the third quarter during a running clock situation.

Eitniear was perfect on his five passes for 138 yards. The Bobcats had 275 yards rushing and 413 yards of total offense.

The Bobcat defense pitched its second straight shutout, the first time Whiteford has done that since the 2012 season.

DeShaun Williams had a huge game for the Bobcat defense. The senior defensive lineman was in on six tackles, including one quarterback sack and four tackles for loss. Brodi Tesznar and Nicholas Donnelly also had sacks for the Bobcat defense, which gave up just 74 yards of total offense. The Bobcats have allowed just 18 points this season, an average of 3.6 points a game.

With the win, the Bobcats have won 19 straight games overall, 23 straight regular season games and 17 straight TCC games. The 23-straight regular season wins ties the 1963-1966 Bobcat teams for the longest regular season win streak in school history.

Murphy rushed for a Whiteford-record 1,873 yards last year but his carries have been limited this season as the Bobcats have built huge leads against their opponents. He had five carries against Blissfield, one against Stryker, 15 against Summerfield and five against Whitmore Lake. He now has 468 yards rushing on 46 carries this season in five games.

Whiteford (5-0, 3-0 TCC) has now forced a running clock in all five of its wins this season. The Bobcats will host the Morenci Bulldogs (1-4, 1-2) next week.

Whiteford 48, Madison 0

TEAM STATISTICS
WF M
First downs-Plays 17-36 4-33
Rushes-yards 31-275 29-59
Comp-Att-Int 5-5-0 2-4-0
Passing yards 138 15
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-1
Punts-Avg. 0-0 6-27.7
Penalties-Yards 4-35 4-35

SCORE BY QUARTERS
Whiteford 32 16 0 0 — 48
Madison 0 0 0 0 — 0

SCORING
W – Logan Murphy 8 run (Logan Murphy run), 8:43, 1st

W – Bradyn Clark-Gilmore 18 pass from Ty Eitniear (Ty Eitniear run), 6:17, 1st

W – Zack Bertz 1 run (D’Ondre Shaw run), 1:55, 1st

W – Logan Murphy 71 run (Logan Murphy run), :20, 1st

W – Hunter Lake 1 run (Nathan Bauman run), 6:21, 2nd

W – Logan Murphy 32 run (Zack Bertz pass from Ty Eitniear), 3:16, 2nd

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Whiteford: Logan Murphy 10-164, D’Ondre Shaw 6-33, Ty Eitniear 2-29, Zack Bertz 4-25, Caleb Williams 2-12, Hunter Lake 3-7, Devon Shaw 1-3, Zach Renaud 1-2, Nick Marchant 2-0. Madison: Derrik Allen 11-64, Mike Dillard 5-9, Skyler Lamley 10-3, Max Brant 3-(minus)-17.
PASSING — Whiteford: Ty Eitniear 5-5-0 138 yards. Madison: Max Brant 2-4-0 15 yards.
RECEIVING— Whiteford: Zack Bertz 1-62, Bradyn Clark-Gilmore 3-40, Nathan Bauman 1-36. Madison: Mike Dillard 1-8, Tyson Fetter 1-7.