CALHOUN FALLS — The Whitmire Wolverines dropped their second region game of the season to Calhoun Falls Charter School on Friday, losing to the Blue Flashes 42-40 in overtime.

With the loss, the Wolverines have an overall record of 3-5 and a region record of 1-1.

“Crazy high school football game” was how head coach Charlie Jenkins described it.

“We had five turnovers, they had zero and yet we still had a chance to win. We moved the ball on them all night and scored 40 points,” said Jenkins. “Our defense regrouped after a rough start and only allowed one score in the second half, but we gave them two scores on kickoff.”

Jenkins said it is well known that the Wolverines prefer onside kicks on just about every kick off, unless they feel they match up athletically with their opponent.

“We do onside kicks because we have a hard time tackling people in the open field because we are not very fast, and we do not have a reliable kicker who can kick it any distance or with any height,” Jenkins said. “When we try to kick it ‘deep’ the other team ends up running it back to the 50 yard line anyway. So we figure an onside kick at least gives us a chance to recover it, but this week we kicked too hard twice and their second wave guys were able to catch the ball on perfect bounces instead of their front line players falling on the ball.”

The Blue Flashes caught those hot kicks and took off before the Wolverines surrounded them. The Wolverines defense was only on the field for five plays in the first quarter, but they still had the lead and the score was tied at 28-28 at halftime.

“Both teams scored once in the second half, leaving the score tied at 34 at the end of regulation. In overtime Whitmire scored first, but was unable to score the two-point conversion,” Jenkins said.

The Blue Flashes scored on the fourth down on their possession and on the two-point conversion, a pack of Wolverines seemed to have the Blue Flashes ball carrier surrounded for a five yard loss. The Blue Flashes were able to reverse field and scamper into the end-zone for the victory.

“Both teams fought their heart out, we made too many mistakes to win,” Jenkins said. “We lose focus at times and I will take the blame for that. We have two weeks to decide what we will be remembered for in 2016. We can win the Region with two wins or we can finish in last place and miss the playoffs altogether with two losses.”

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@civitasmedia.com

Reach Andrew Wigger at 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.