Though his Spartans team walked away from Whitehaven’s home field in week three with a 33-13 victory, White Station head coach Devin Rutherford believes the Tigers have a slight upper hand this week.

 Still, he expects the Spartans (10-2) to be well prepared for their quarterfinals Class 6A playoff match-up Friday night at the Fairgrounds. “This is a big game,” Rutherford said. “You have two of the premiere city schools battling. To be honest, Whitehaven has the advantage. It’s easier to coach revenge than consistency.”

Since White Station’s 35-55 loss to Memphis University School in week six, the Spartans have dominated their opponents. Offensively they are averaging 38 points per game over that span. Senior quarterback Anthony Hayes, a Class AAA Mr. Football finalist, is a big part of the high-scoring offense. Hayes has more than 1,500 yards through the air and more than 1,300 yards on the ground, along with 33 touchdowns this year. White Station’s defense has allowed just 12.1 points per game in that six-game stretch.

“Our focus is getting better every week,” Rutherford said. “We’re a very good football team right now. At this point everybody is playing for 15 games. We’re at 13 right now. We have Whitehaven now, then whoever is after that and then the championship game in Cookeville.”

Meanwhile, the Spartans know that Whitehaven (10-2) is also playing good football, and they have some real talent on the squad.

“They have a great running back,” Rutherford said. “That quarterback is a very good athlete. Whitehaven has speed and talent to burn, so for our practices we don’t use a scout team. We go good versus good everyday. For example, our star linebacker Fred Harvey goes against our star tailback/WR Julian Burton. This gives us an opportunity to stay sharp.”

Throughout the regular season the Spartans were tested weekly, with one of the toughest schedules in District 16 Class 6A football. Seven of the Spartans’ opponents made the playoffs.

“When you play good teams, you can’t help but be good,” Rutherford said. “We’ve been in hostile situations. We are prepared. What football coach wouldn’t want to play Whitehaven to determine who makes it out of this area to go represent the area for the semi-finals? This is why you watch all the film and do all the conditioning. This makes it all worth it.”

At Whitehaven, coach Rodney Saulsberry said his team has improved since their first match-up with the Spartans.

“We used that first game as fuel to our fire,” he said. “We played them very early in the year. We learned from it, and our team has progressed from then. Adversity is when you learn best.”

The Tigers are coming off a 14-13 win over Wooddale in which their defense stopped the Cardinals’ go-ahead, two-point conversion attempt.

“A win is a win,” said Saulsberry. “We have to build off that. We have to show that we want it more than them. We have our goal, and we are a couple games away from accomplishing our goal.”