CLEVELAND — Gainesville’s already high-powered offense just got a little more dangerous.

The Red Elephants (3-0) unveiled their version of the Wildcat offense Friday night against White County, and both times it was used it worked to perfection and helped lead the No. 2 team in the state to a 42-20 win.

"Those plays were brought to me Sunday by my assistant coaches and I thought it was a great idea," Gainesville coach Bruce Miller said of the formation that had Tyson Smith lined up at quarterback and Blake Sims as a wide receiver. "Tyson has always wanted to be a quarterback and we finally gave him the chance."

And the senior didn’t let him down.

On just the second snap of Gainesville’s first possession, Smith lined up at quarterback and rushed for a short gain. On the next snap, he completed a short pass to Sims, who has committed verbally to Alabama, and let him do the rest. After getting by his defender, Sims high-stepped over a would-be tackler and rushed to the end zone for a 71-yard touchdown.

"I just wondered if I was going to be able get the job done," Smith said. "The coaches gave me a chance to make some plays and I showed them that I could do it."

Smith did it all Friday. Not only did he complete another long touchdown pass to Sims later in the game, but he also caught two touchdown passes and rushed for 36 yards on three carries.

"I’ll do whatever I can to help the team," Smith said. "I had a good game, but it was good play-calling by the coaches, good blocking by the line and great runs after the catch by Blake."

The latter part of that statement is the main reason why Gainesville implemented the formation, which it calls "Empty Brown Gun."

"If we put Blake on one side and Tai-ler (Jones) on the other, which one are you going to try and stop?" Miller said.

The answer was Jones, who finished the game with only 30 yards receiving but did catch his first touchdown of the year, an 11-yard strike from Sims in the second quarter.

That touchdown answered White County’s first score of the game, a 35-yard pass from Tyler Dotson to Cam Segraves that ended Gainesville’s season-long shutout streak.

But that was the lone offensive touchdown allowed by the first-team defense, which sacked White County quarterbacks eight times in the game and scored a touchdown on a botched punt attempt in the first quarter.

"Their defense is just phenomenal," White County coach Gregg Segraves said. "We knew this game was going to be tough, but at the same time we didn’t play our best football."

The main guys for Gainesville didn’t either, as leading passer Sims finished with just 88 yards, leading receiver Jones had just 30 and the Red Elephants’ leading rusher Teryan Rucker was held to just 53 yards.

All that was overshadowed by the emergence of Smith, who answered the Warriors’ lone offensive touchdown with a 77-yard touchdown pass to Sims, who had 148 receiving yards.

With Gainesville driving on its next possession, Smith did it again, converting on fourth down with a 22-yard run and then capping the 11-play drive with an 11-yard touchdown reception.

"Tyson’s just one of those guys," Miller said. "He can do so many things; he’s a complete player."

The Sims to Smith combo connected again in the third quarter, this time for a 16-yard touchdown that put Gainesville up 42-7.

White County chipped into Gainesville’s lead in the third quarter when Paul Roach recovered a fumble and returned it 42 yards for the touchdown. The Warriors scored again late in the game when Cole Segraves found Brett Turner for an 8-yard touchdown.

"I was hoping our defense would get another shutout," Miller said.

They didn’t, but while Gainesville’s defense proved that it was not perfect, the offense proved that it has at least one more weapon that most weren’t aware of.