By Dan King

There’s been 96 minutes of football played by Whitehall this season and the team hasn’t given up a single point so far.

The Railroaders defeated Rensselaer Friday night, 20-0, advancing to 2-0 and outscoring opponents 49-0 in those two games.

“This is great group of kids,” said coach Rich Gould. “They’re very coachable. I just can’t say enough about them;they work hard, they listen and they bust their butts.”

Offensively, Whitehall hammered the Rams with the run game, as tailback Daryl Hillman carried 25 times for 155 yards. Each time Hillman wore down the Rams defense, the aerial attack finished things off, as quarterback Derek Thomas hooked up with his twin brother, Tyler, for three touchdowns.

“Early against Canajoharie our offense had to work through some first-game jitters,” Gould said. “It takes a little while to get jelled, but we had a good week of practice. Derek has really stepped up and done a tremendous job at quarterback and Tyler’s been all-league for three years now.”

Defensively, the Railroaders continued to manhandle opponents with a strong line and linebacker crew. The likes of Cody LaRock, Seth Martindale, Jake Gregory, Brandon Bollster and Joe DeLorme, among others, made for a miserable game for the Rams offense, which struggled to reach even the red zone, let alone the end zone.

The opening drives for each team were microcosms of the game as a whole. Rensselaer went three and out on its opening drive, while Whitehall ran a heavy dosage of Hillman and Martindale down to the Rensselaer 5-yard line before the Thomas twins hooked up for their first touchdown.

On the subsequent drive, Rensselaer sputtered again as Tyler Thomas intercepted a pass, giving Whitehall good field position, which led to another Thomas-to-Thomas touchdown from 14 yards out.

Whitehall’s 12-0 lead at the end of the first quarter held into the second half, when the Railroaders scored on the opening drive after starting at their own 45. Derek Thomas broke loose for a big scramble on a broken play, to the Rams 32-yard line. Thomas then hooked up with David Camara for a big third-down conversion to keep the drive alive.

Moments later, Whitehall was faced with a fouth-and-5 at the Rams 17-yard line. Instead of going for a short route and a first down, the Railroaders took a shot at the end zone and it paid off, as the Thomas twins connected for a third score.

Neither team scored again, although the Thomases nearly completed a fourth touchdown with about 3:30 left in the game. The pass was stripped out of Tyler’s hands on his way to the ground.

This week’s game

This week, Whitehall will play its crossover game against Class C Corinth.

The Tomahawks (2-0) are coming off an impressive 39-35 road win at Hoosic Valley. Corinth had a 29-7 halftime lead in that game, but Hoosic Valley came storming back to make a game of it and the Tomahawks ultimately needed a last-second forced turnover to save the game.

Corinth is led by quarterback Chantz Baudoux, who is a threat both on the ground and through the air. The Tomahawks also have a prolific rush attack, as both Kory Bennett and Alex Jenkins ran for more than 100 yards in the Tomahawks win in Schaghticoke Saturday.

Kick off for Saturday’s game is set for 1 p.m. at Ambrose Gilligan Field.