MADISON — It took less than a minute — maybe not even 30 seconds — for Westside tailback Travis Whitten to singlehandedly determine the outcome of his team’s high school football game against Scott on Friday.

With his team clinging to a

23-20 lead against a perennial playoff contender in a hostile environment on the road, Whitten used his blazing speed to reel off back-to-back touchdown runs that simultaneously elated the No. 11 Renegades (3-1) and deflated the No. 4 Skyhawks (3-1) in a back-and-forth battle between state-ranked Class AA squads.

“He’s clearly the fastest guy on the field,” Scott coach Shane Griffith said.

“He’s just so dangerous once he clears the line.”

Those scores were the third and fourth of the night for Whitten, who finished with a jaw-dropping 411 yards and four touchdowns on 31 carries in Westside's 35-20 upset win.

“If Travis gets to the outside, he’s like a jet,” Westside coach Darren Thomas told the Beckley Register-Herald. “No doubt about it, he’s the best I have seen in a while.”

Whitten’s 83-yarder gave the Renegades a nine-point lead. His 91-yarder gave them a 15-point cushion.

“Both times, we pinned them with punts inside their 10-yard line,” said Griffith, whose team ran for 125 yards and threw for 127 yards in a losing effort on homecoming night. "We were hoping for three-and-outs to get good field position.

"Before the first one, we were looking to get a score and go back on top and put the pressure back on them. After the first one, we knew it would be difficult, but we knew we still had a shot. After the second one, it took the wind out of our sails. It was just deflating."

The Renegades played without their other talented tailback, Nick Lambert, who normally shares carries with Whitten. Nevertheless, they finished with more than 450 yards and five scores.

“We dominated the line of scrimmage,” Thomas told the Beckley Register-Herald.

“The last two years, Scott had physically whipped us, but we have finally got some of our kids where they need to be. They were hard to handle.”

Griffith said he can't recall a player or a team running for more yards than Whitten and Westside.

"Our defense traditionally has been pretty strong over the years, especially against the run," said Griffith, who is in his 10th season at the helm of his alma mater. "We have faced opponents that have been able to throw against us, but nobody has ever put up such staggering rushing numbers on us."

Whitten's performance reminded Griffith of his most successful prodigy, current West Virginia University redshirt freshman running back Jordan Roberts, who won the Kennedy Award in 2007 after he ran for 3,826 yards and 48 touchdowns and threw for 684 yards and seven scores in his senior season at Scott.

One of Roberts' attention-grabbing performances came in the second round of the state playoffs, where he carried 23 times for 404 yards and eight touchdowns in a 54-20 victory at Berkeley Springs.

"I have heard a lot of people locally say, 'Now, we know how teams felt facing Jordan Roberts all those years,' " Griffith said. "This kid is the best high school tailback I have faced as a coach.

"Jordan Roberts, to me, is always going to be a step above everybody else. Jordan had more strength to his run and a little more explosion, but not much. This kid is legitimate. You would be hard-pressed to find a better high school tailback in the state right now."

The Renegades earned their first victory over the Skyhawks, who entered the game with a 5-0 record against the 8-year-old Wyoming County program (a 2002-03 consolidation of Baileysville and Oceana).

Griffith pointed to the progress made by Whitten and the Renegades.

"He has put on a lot of good weight over the off-season," Griffith said of Whitten, who has carried 83 times for 1,048 yards and 12 touchdowns this year. "He is 15 to 18 pounds heavier and stronger than he was last season. He really came in with a different running style than last year. He is strong through the hole. He is strong through the first contact. He has grown up and matured as a tailback.

"They have a very good

offensive line. They have been looking at this group of kids since they were freshmen. They have taken their licks over the last three years, waiting for this group to mature, and they are reaping the benefits now."

The lead changed hands three times in the first half — 6-0 Scott, 7-6 Westside, 12-7 Scott and 15-12 Westside at the intermission.

"It was a typical high school football game, with two teams playing hard and trading scores back and forth but not at a fast pace," Griffith said. "They made it 15-12 right before the half. They had a fourth-and-10 from our 25-yard line and we let them off the hook. They picked up a first down, and they finished that drive with a touchdown. There was a 14-point swing because we had a punt return called back."

The Skyhawks regained the lead at 20-15 in the third quarter, but the Renegades answered with a momentum-turning score and Whitten followed with his

game-changing heroics.

Scott will visit James Monroe on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

James Monroe (3-0) is coming off a 10-6 win over PikeView (2-2).

"The first thing we have to get across to this young team is, we're 3-1 -- exactly where we have been at this point the last two years," said Griffith, whose team is aiming for its seventh consecutive playoff appearance.

The Mavericks own a 2-0 series lead over the Skyhawks.

"We approach this week as an opportunity to stake a claim we have never been able to attain," Griffith said. "When you look at the rest of the schedule, it is filled with Double-A juggernauts (James Monroe, Wayne and Bluefield).

"Each game starts to take on significance. James Monroe clearly is a team that you can write your playoff ticket with, just off the points they provide you."

The Skyhawks' individual

statistics and scores against the Renegades were unavailable at press time.