WHITWELL, Tenn. - Friday was a night to honor Whitwell's past - football players, band members and cheerleaders - and the Tigers did so in high fashion, becoming the first of their kind in a long past to open the season with six consecutive wins.
The victim was Polk County, which jumped on the buses as quickly as possible after a 41-6 loss in which the clock was running for much of the second half.
"They physically whipped us like nobody has this year. That includes Tyner and East Ridge," said veteran Polk coach Derrick Davis, whose Wildcats dropped to 3-3. "They're very physical, and you combine that with their speed and it makes them hard to handle. They're disciplined and they play hard."
That speed was a killer, especially junior runner Trace Condra. He had just 11 carries but finished with 205 yards and a pair of scores, including a 79-yard sprint.
Condra was one of seven Tigers to get carries, and Whitwell finished with 347 yards (a 9.9 per-carry average).
"When you have the running backs we have, I'd get fired if we didn't run it," Whitwell coach Randall Boldin said. "We have playmakers everywhere."
The Tigers took a 34-6 lead into halftime, and Condra's 6-yard run less than three minutes into the third started the running clock. Before the period was over, Boldin had begun substituting liberally.
"It could've been a lot worse if that wasn't a class bunch on the other sideline," Davis said.
Whitwell finished with 475 yards of offense.
"We work on our passing game a lot, and we know we can throw the football," Boldin said, "but when you're running the ball the way we are, we just keep pounding it."
Even when he began subbing, the first-team linemen wanted to stay in the game to block for the younger backs.
"They're a heck of a group of guys," Boldin said. "I talk about our backs, but our offensive linemen - they like to get in there and get their noses dirty."
When asked about any mistakes, the first-year Tigers coach didn't pull any punches.
"I'm going to find something. I don't care if we win 100 to nothing, I'll find things we can do better," he said. "The kids know that. They know me. Yeah, we made some mistakes tonight and we have some things to clean up."
Boldin also was elated not just with the turnout - the stands were full and fans stood two deep in places along the fence from end zone to end zone - but also the 6-0 start.
""It feels good," he said. "I'm happy for these kids and this community. This was a big thing when I got this job - to get this community fired up, and they have really supported these kids and the kids feed off of it."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.