There’s no substitute for experience, and White Knoll has it on defense.

With seven starters back and nine seniors on that side of the ball, the Timberwolves’ defense is one of the Midlands’ best and has been a key in their four-game winning streak.

White Knoll shut down Spring Valley’s powerful running game in last week’s 38-7 victory to earn The State’s Team of the Week honors.

“You can’t coach that (experience),” White Knoll coach Dean Howell said. “We have been talking about it since last season ended, that the defense group was going to be the strength of this team, and they have showed that.”

Against Spring Valley, White Knoll turned in one of its best performances. Spring Valley averaged 365 yards and 32 points a game going into last week’s matchup, but the Timberwolves held them to 204 yards of offense and 3.6 yards a carry in the win.

“We really wanted to show people what we are made of, and we did that,” senior linebacker Joe Beckett said.

Beckettleads the team with 71 tackles. Brandon Serio (63 tackles), Jacob Chavis (38), Shaeem Haltiwanger (27) and Deangelo Jacobs (2 interceptions) have also played big roles.

As a team, White Knoll has allowed 53 points, the fewest in Class 5A, and is giving up 234 yards of offense per game.

“All of our returning seniors, we play good with each other. We grew up playing with each other,,” Beckett said. “I don’t know if anyone else expected anything else out of us, but we knew if we put in the work and time we would be special.”

White Knoll’s offense has done its part. First-year starting quarterback Jacob Jeffcoat threw for a career-high 261 yards last week, and the Timberwolves gained 569 yards of offense. Running back Maurice Jones leads the team with 566 yards rushing, and White Knoll is averaging 205 yards per game on the ground.

Howell also has been pleased with the offensive line, which has started the same group in each game.

The Timberwolves hope to continue that production as they enter the tough part of their region schedule with games against Dutch Fork, Blythewood and Lexington to close out the season.

“Early in the year, ask anyone, we weren’t playing very well. We couldn’t line up and punt and turned it over four times against South Aiken in the first game,” Howell said. “But we haven’t been doing that the last few weeks. These guys come to work every day, not being satisfied with what we have done the previous week, whether it was a win or loss. We know we can get better in every aspect.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 9:04 PM.