East Clarendon's Nesbitt provides offensive spark on way to Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week

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In two seasons under head coach Larry Cornelius, the East Clarendon football team has been known for pounding the rock. They'll air it out in the passing game from time to time, but the running game tends to be the center of attention.

When the Wolverines hosted Kingstree on Friday, Oct. 11, they flipped the script.

EC expected Kingstree to load the box to stop the run, so it was time for the passing attack to shine. Whit Nesbitt was more than happy to answer the call. He hauled in two touchdown passes to help lead East Clarendon to a 42-36 win in a shootout, earning the Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week in the process.

"It means a lot for a small community to rally behind me," Nesbitt said of the honor.

Nesbitt and the Wolverines came into the region matchup with an edge. The week before, they suffered a heartbreaking loss to Manning on a late punt return in a hurricane-postponed Monday night matchup. They then had to stew through their bye week, just itching to get back onto the field.

"It definitely left a bad taste in everybody's mouth. Nobody wants to go out there and lose, especially to a county rival," Nesbitt said. "Going into Kingstree, we knew what we had to do to win. As a receiver, I knew we were throwing the ball, so I wanted the ball. First of all, we needed to win and stop them on defense, but I wanted the ball on offense. That was my mindset going in. That's my mindset every week."

The Wolverines expected Kingstree to load the box to stop the run, which meant there would be opportunities for Nesbitt in the passing game. After spending plenty of time run blocking this fall, he wanted to seize an opportunity to show off his skills as a pass catcher.

"I looked at all of the other receivers, and I was excited," Nesbitt said of hearing the game plan. "We run routes every game, but whenever I know the ball is going to be in the air, I enjoy that."

Coach Cornelius also felt more comfortable putting the ball in the air because he knows that Nesbitt will make a play more often than not.

"There's a good connection between Takoda (Cornelius) and Whit. Any time Takoda puts the ball in the air to Whit, he feels like there's always a chance he can catch it. It gives you great confidence," the EC head coach said. "That's what we wanted to prove going into Kingstree. We knew they were going to try to stop the run, like a lot of teams do. What it did for our team is prove that we can win in various ways."

The Wolverines took a little while to fully find their offensive groove last Friday, as they went into the half down 16-14. But EC found a spark through the air after the break, as Takoda Cornelius fired a deep shot to a wide-open Nesbitt for a 68-yard strike.

"When I released off the ball, the safety and the corner crashed in, and I realized I was wide open," Nesbitt said. "Whenever you have it like that, you're trying to get into the end zone. I looked over my shoulder and saw a dude running me down. I started panicking and said there's no way I'm about to get ran down, so I hit a second gear."

After that score, Nesbitt knew the offense found its rhythm.

"We're a second-half team for some reason," Nesbitt said after finishing with five catches for 137 yards. "I feel like after I hit that 68-yard touchdown, we finally made a big play through the air. We needed to get over that hump and hit a big play in the passing game; we hadn't done that since maybe Week 2. We were rolling through the air after that."

The T. Cornelius-to-Nesbitt connection stayed hot after that, as the EC quarterback decided to throw on a run-pass option and found his senior wide out for a tough touchdown to keep pace with Kingstree in a shootout.

"I had a favorable matchup," Nesbitt said. "I was hoping Koda was going to give me a chance on that one because it was a read play. The defensive back had good position on it, but I made a good play on it and caught it on the one and walked it in."

Nesbitt was also on the receiving end of a pair of two-point conversions after his touchdowns. Coach Cornelius told his son and quarterback that he didn't necessarily make the correct reads, but the young signal-caller trusted his receiver to make a play.

"I had to get on the quarterback on his last two-point conversion," Coach Cornelius said. "We went to another RPO on the two-point conversion, and he honestly should've gave it, and he feathered it to the back post, and Whit made a heck of a one-handed catch. I told Koda he's got to look at his reads, and Koda's response was, 'I know if I throw it up there, Whit's going to catch it.'

"Sometimes you have to tame that confidence and make sure we're going through our reads, but it's awesome when you see confidence oozing in your players."

The victory was exactly what the Wolverines needed after suffering their second loss of the season. The win gave EC the inside track to their second-straight home playoff game and has this team beaming with confidence.

"That game was real big for us. We want to have a home playoff game again," Nesbitt said. "As far as confidence goes, our focus this week was making sure we don't get complacent and have Mullins sneak up on us because we don't take them seriously. We've had confidence, but we're trying to stay headstrong and keep playing."

On top of the importance of the win itself, Coach Cornelius thinks the style of victory was just as critical. It always helps when a team see themselves win in different ways.

"It's hard for a receiver because every day we're doing the same thing or the same types of things, and if you're only throwing the ball 10 times a game, that can wear on a receiver," the EC head coach said. "After we do that, the belief is there more."

Nesbitt has seen the peaks and valleys of the East Clarendon football program over the past five years, from praying to win a game to hosting games in the postseason. He's not taking this turnaround for granted.

"It means the world," he said. "I've been playing for East Clarendon for five years, and in the first three, we might have won three games. We'd be going into games, and people would ask if we would win, and half the team would say we're not going to win. Now, every week I can say absolutely, we'll tell anybody. Are they a good team? Yeah, but we're going to win. I don't have a doubt in my mind, and it feels good knowing that every week."


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