WOODRUFF — The Woodruff football team got a sniff of the competition they will face next season in the 3A ranks. The Wolverines proved they can hang with the bigger boys on Friday night.
Woodruff jumped out to a big lead early and rolled to a convincing 51-28 win over Greenville in the season-opener at W.L. Varner Stadium. The Wolverines (1-0) got a safety and scored four touchdowns to lead 30-7 at the end of the first quarter.
Ryan Perkins threw three of his six touchdown passes in the quarter — a 29-yarder to Hermundre Rutledge, a 54-yard strike to Blake Bone and a 12-yarder to Mason Sanders.
Shun Tribble scored on an 18-yard run.
"I think we had a lot built up in us coming out here tonight," Woodruff coach Brian Lane said. "We came out here on fire in the first quarter and that kept us in the game. We had some spurts here and there."
Perkins threw three more touchdown passes in the game, two to Bone and one to Rutledge. Perkins ended 19-for-30 for 294 yards with six touchdowns and one interception." All of the hard work we put in finally paid off," said Perkins, a junior. "We were really excited about tonight and I think we showed that."
Bone led all receivers with five catches for 146 yards and three scores. "I'm glad me and Perkins could hook up tonight," said Bone, a sophomore. "We've not been on the same page lately, but tonight was a good night."
Ken Drummond and Cyd Wedman each had an interception in the first half for the Wolverines.
Greenville (0-1) closed the gap to 44-28 after Rooke Crouch connected with Nikem Taylor on 69-yard scoring strike with 8:02 left in the third quarter, but could get no closer. Taylor had two rushing touchdowns.
"They are real good," Greenville coach Phil Magdic said. "We can't give a good team like that all of those opportunities. We had too many mistakes."