By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com
Salisbury was leading its second-round 2AA playoff game at Shelby 27-20, but the Lions were driving deep into Hornets territory with less than two minutes left. Facing a fourth down, Shelby failed, giving the ball back to Salisbury. The Hornets had to make a first down and keep the clock running.
Ike Whitaker gave his teammates much more.
On the first play after gaining possession, the fullback took a trap play up the middle for 65 yards.
It set up Romar Morris’ touchdown with 1:35 left that helped seal a 34-26 win.
Whitaker, who was also a defensive standout, went over 100 yards with the run, giving him the Ironman Award. He was a two-way player Friday night.
Make that three-way player. He also excelled on special teams.
“Our coaches wanted to make him player of the week in all three,” chuckled Salisbury coach Joe Pinyan.
Whitaker isn’t the leading rusher. He isn’t the leading tackler. But he may be the most important Hornet of all. On a team of junior stars, he is a senior playmaker.
Pinyan says Whitaker will come off the field on offense and the coaches will tell him to get a sip of water before heading out to play defense.
“But he doesn’t want a sip of water,” Pinyan said. “He came to play.”
Thankfully for the Hornets, he was on the field with the offense to get Salisbury out of danger with his long run. He was pulled down at the Shelby 11.
“His story is, he took a knee so we could run out the clock,” said Pinyan, making his fullback smile.
“The trap was pretty much open all night,” said Whitaker, who finished with 111 yards on 13 carries, beating his previous high of 103 yards against Lexington.
Riley Gallagher and Terrence McElrath gave him good blocks, “and it was open field,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker’s enjoying this playoff run. He thought the team had potential to go all the way last year before four forfeits ruined an 11-0 start and Pisgah ó this week’s third-round opponent ó ousted the Hornets in the first round. He is looking forward to another game in front of a big crowd.
“Playing West Rowan, Davie and Thomasville helped us and boosted our confidence,” Whitaker said of the three close losses. “And playing at Pisgah last year helped us play in big situations.”
That’s the kind of talk his coach wants from the senior leader.
“As hard as he goes, it rubs off on other players,” Pinyan said. “Everybody wants to play just as hard.”
At Shelby, the other backs prospered from Whitaker’s play, according to Pinyan.
“We like to establish the fullback,” he said. “That way, they have to stop him and that enables us to hit the home runs. We’ll establish Ike on what we think can be an 8-yard run and he turns it into a 15- to 20-yard gain.”
Whitaker proved it against the Lions with perhaps his best all-around performance of the season.
“Ike takes every single play personally,” Pinyan smiled. “He wants every play to be his best play.”
Shelby learned what the Central Carolina Conference already knew.
“At the all-conference meeting, one of the coaches said, ‘We’re just glad No. 44 is going,’ ” Pinyan said. “They’re tired of how hard he plays.
“We’re not tired of it.”
And the reason for the success of Salisbury’s Ike Whitaker?
He never gets tired.