The King’s Fork High School football team’s defense held firm on a rain-drenched night, and its offense did enough to hand a 14-6 defeat to visiting Western Branch High School.

“We told the guys before the game this was going to be a heavyweight battle,” Bulldogs coach Joe Jones said. “This was Tyson and Holyfield. This was a big win for us.”

Both teams found the going difficult on offense early on, and the game was scoreless after the first quarter.

“They were loading the box with eight, and we couldn’t block them all, and we made an adjustment in the second quarter blocking scheme-wise,” Jones said.

It opened things up and led to a 7-0 lead for King’s Fork as senior feature back Deshaun “Debo” Wethington scored on a 27-yard run.

Jones noted there “wasn’t a big variety of play selection by either team” on the night. Both teams prefer to run the ball, but the Bulldogs ended up doing it a little bit better.

Wethington finished with 20 carries for 168 yards and two touchdowns.

“Offense did it when they needed to,” Jones said. “Debo did a great job running the ball. We had no turnovers on a night like this.”

With 1:22 to go in the third quarter, the Bruins looked poised to tie the game up after scoring on a five-yard run, but things did not go according to their plan on the extra point attempt.

“That was big when they scored, and they kind of bobbled the hold on the extra point, and we blocked it,” Jones said.

Wethington expanded the Bulldogs’ lead with 7:52 to go in the game on a 10-yard scoring run, getting significant help from his offensive line.

The hole the line opened up was so big, “you could have drove a truck through it,” Jones said. “I could have ran it in with my (injured) knee.”

Western Branch was threatening to score near the end of the fourth quarter, but then freshman defensive back Chris Shearin intervened.

“Chris got the interception that sealed the win with under a minute left,” Jones said.

Praising the defense for playing well all night, Jones highlighted the performances of senior defensive end Cullen Marshall, senior linebacker John Spearman, senior linebacker Notorious Brown and Shearin.

“It was a solid, solid team effort,” Jones said of the victory.

King’s Fork (3-1) visits Great Bridge High School next Friday night.