Defense, special teams set up White House win by Andy Humbles, of The Tennessean Nashville, TN October 20, 2001 Call it the early bird getting the worm. Better than that, White House got a win last night, making touchdowns generated by defense and special teams stand up in a 14-8 victory over Whites Creek. "Starting fast was important because they are the most athletic team I've seen in four years," White House fullback/linebacker Josh LeLoup said. "We knew they had a ton of talent. They have athletes." But White House (7-2, 6-0 in 6-4A) was able to shut down Whites Creek (5-3, 4-2) except for one big play in the fourth quarter when Cobras quaterback Michael Hassell went 80 yards when he got a pitch back from Tron Menzies on a broken play after handing the ball off. Hassell ran for 120 yards, but only 40 besides the touchdown run. "That was the main thing, we know he's started for four years and taken them to the state finals," Leloup said. The White House defense didn't just stop Whites Creek much of the night, it jump-started the entire Blue Devils team. On the opening series Jordan Bean's 59-yard interception return to the end zone gave White House a 6-0 lead. "He just threw a bomb up and it came to me and I had a lane," Bean said of his pick. "At that point I didn't know how important it was." On Whites Creek's second series, Tony Misch blocked a punt to give White House the ball at the Cobra 32. It set up a 2-yard TD run by LeLoup midway in the first quarter. "That helped the momentum we got from Jordan's interception," Misch said. James Black intercepted another pass for White House and though Whites Creek played an outstanding defensive game from that point, the Cobras couldn't score as they passed more than usual. "They jumped on us at the beginning which put us in a position to do things we don't do as well," Whites Creek Coach Richard Coure said. Whites Creek had a chance to score on a second-quarter drive to the Blue Devil 11. But a holding penalty brought it back to the 21 and Whites Creek would turn it over on downs, leaving it 14-0 at the end of the half. The game changed in two plays in the fourth quarter when White House drove inside the Cobra 5 and looked to put the game away, only to fumble into the end zone with Whites Creek's Jeff Taylor recovering. Two plays later Hassell broke loose on the pitch back after Menzies was stopped on what actually was a broken play. Hassell's two-point conversion pass cut the lead to six. "We tried to keep them from creating big holes by not aggressively rushing them," White House Coach Jeff Porter said. "We didn't want the big play, but they got one. He's a great athelete." Whites Creek looked to get another one when it got the ball back with 4:59 to play. Rudell Barnhill leaped up on a long pass from Hassell and appeared to have caught it and started running when the ball was knocked out of bounds around the White House 20 with just over 3 minutes to play. One official appeared to have ruled it complete, but the other ruled it incomplete. "You could clearly see he turned around and caught it and started running," Coure said. "But you can't rely on officials to make correct calls all the time which we did because of the way we started and in this case it was the incorrect call." White House can play for at least a tie in Region 6-4A. It's White House's first year in Class 4A after moving up from 3A prior to this season. "We wanted to prove we could compete; all we dreamed about was a region championship and now we have a chance to play for it," LeLoup said. whlib@viafamily.com