ANN ARBOR – Walled Lake Western unfurled a big effort at the Big House in Ann Arbor Thursday evening to kick-off the 2016 football season. Using a quick-strike offense and an opportunistic defense, the Warriors walloped Farmington 41-14 in a battle of teams from the KLAA and OAA staged at Michigan Stadium on the campus of the University of Michigan.

Three-time defending KLAA North champ and 2015 Division 2 semifinalist Western was without its starting quarterback Johnny Tracy (stomach flu) for the game, but it didn’t matter. All-state senior wide receiver Cody White (Michigan State) filled in valiantly, throwing four touchdowns to four different receivers in the first half, as well as running one in too, leading his club to a commanding 41-0 advantage at the half.

White’s first toss of the night was a 31-yard touchdown on the Warriors first snap of the game, connecting with senior Jack Dodge. The score came right after junior Justin Thomas recovered a Farmington fumble, one of Western’s four recoveries in the first half. A 23-yard jaunt straight up the middle across the goal line by White, a 1-yard scoring plunge by tailback Jalen Marshall and White’s 40-yard hook-up with Thomas made it 28-0 with 4:44 left in the second quarter and had Farmington gasping for air.

The Falcons wouldn’t find any the rest of the half. White found Kam Ford for a jump-ball touchdown on the right side of the end zone from 10 yards out and then a streaking Ben Reilly from 18 yards out to cap Western’s first half onslaught.

“Five touchdowns in a half is a pretty exciting way to open the season, I’m just happy I could help my team out in a pinch,” said White of his gaudy stat line. “I think this shows how explosive we are. We can miss a key guy and still play well. I didn’t want the first half to end, we were having so much fun. We were putting up points in a hurry.”

Taking a seat for the second-half activities, White finished his day 10-of-13 for 172 yards and his five scores.

Western head coach Mike Zdebski was pleased to see his squad not miss a beat minus it’s starting signal caller.

“Cody is a darn good athlete, he knows the game of football so much, we as a staff had supreme confidence in his ability to guide our offense in Johnny’s absence,” he said.

Farmington, which competes out of the OAA White, finally got on the board in the second half courtesy of tailback Oscar Glenn’s 58-yard touchdown trot and receiver Moet Andrews 5-yard scoring grab from quarterback Roger Ayers. Andrews' touchdown with 11:06 left in the contest removed the running clock.

Falcons head coach John Bechtel wasn’t making any excuses for his team in the aftermath of the blowout.

“We put the ball on the carpet too many times, we panicked, we didn’t play with any self-assurance and when you add that to how good Western is, it made for a long night,” he said.

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