After an early touchdown and a narrow halftime lead, the Westwood High School Redhawks saw the bottom drop out Friday night against Chapin, falling 28-13 at home.
The Redhawks, led by quarterback Davis King, moved their opening possession steadily down the field, beginning with a complete pass to Adonus Lee and some good rushing yardage by Miquelle Canady. Facing a fourth down and 1 situation on the Eagles 39-yard line with seven minutes to go in the quarter, King handed to ball to Raymond Hall for the critical first down conversion.
Despite a tough Eagle defense led by Nate Blankenship, the King/Canady combination was looking strong. The Redhawks worked the ball downfield with good yardage from Canady and Raymond Hall. With 6:45 to go in the quarter, Hall ran the ball to the 13-yard line of the eagles for a first down. Another good run by Canady brought the ball to the 5-yard line with the clock showing 6:02 to go in the quarter. Good defense by Blankenship made it a challenge to get into the end zone, but the Redhawks were up to it with two runs by Raymond hall; first to the Eagles 1-yard line; and then across the goal line for the touchdown with 4:48 on the clock.
Chapin then got their turn in good field position, as Adam Cook returned the kickoff to their 45-yard line. Quarterback Matt Charpia was able to connect with his favorite receivers, Barrett Charpia and Jacob Eddington, for several short gains, leading the Eagles to the Westwood 14-yard line with two minutes to go in the quarter. Chapin’s Robie Lopez who was stopped by Stephen Timmons on the Redhawks’ 5-yard line, and Eddington ran the ball for the next two plays; first to the Redhawks’ 2-yard line, stopped by Antonio Maxwell; then for the touchdown with 47 seconds to go in the quarter.
The extra point kick was no good, leaving Westwood in the lead by a score of 7-6.
Neither team would score in the second quarter. However, the Eagles had a prime scoring opportunity that was stopped by a brilliant Redhawk defense.
With a good run on a quarterback keeper, Matt Charpia ran the ball to the Westwood 5-yard line, stopped by Whitney McLeod with 3:17 left in the half. A draw play to Eddington resulted in a gain of only a yard. On the next play, Eddington was stopped behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of two yards. On third down and 8, Charpia handed to ball to Robie Lopez who ran into a big pile of Westwood defenders for no gain.
With 1:53 in the half, Charpia’s pass intended for B. Charpia was incomplete. After a commendable series of defensive plays, Westwood took over on downs. They were stuck too far back in their own territory to make anything happen with the half about to end. Westwood went into the locker room with a paper-thin lead, 7-6. This would be the first time in the school’s history they would go into the locker room leading at halftime.
With respect to the goal line defensive stand at the end of the second quarter, Summers gave the team credit.
“It was a great stop. It was huge,” Summers said. “When we got the ball back, I thought we could get a good run right there, but a miscue kept us from executing like we wanted.”
The third quarter would prove to be the downfall for the Redhawks. With 9 minutes to go in the quarter, Charpia threw a 55-yard pass to Alex Young for a touchdown. Charpia connected with a complete pass to Barrett Charpia for the 2-point conversion to put the Eagles up 14-7.
With 2:10 to go in the quarter, a punt by the Redhawks deep in their own territory was blocked. The ball was picked up by Chapin’s Chandler Engle. With no defenders in sight, he ran the ball 19 yards into the end zone for the score. After the successful PAT, the score became Chapin 21, Westwood 7, a deficit from which Westwood would not recover.
The final quarter really began with about 7 minutes to go when Jacob Eddington broke out of the backfield with an 80-yard touchdown run. The extra point kick was good, bringing the score to 28-7 Chapin.
Despite the lopsided score, the Redhawks were undaunted. Westwood found themselves on the Chapin 35-yard line following a costly facemask penalty against the Eagles. A complete pass to Diamond Williams and another to Tyrel Gallman brought the ball to the Eagles 22-yard line with 5:26 to go in the game. Another costly pass interference penalty gave Westwood another break. Canady took the handoff from King for an 11-yard touchdown run with 5:45 to go in the game. On the extra point, King mishandled the ball for an unsuccessful PAT.
Still not willing to give up, Westwood attempted an onside kick, which looked initially like it was recovered by Westwood, but an illegal touching penalty gave the ball to Chapin. The clock ran out with a final score of 28-13 Eagles.
After the game Summers was clearly downbeat about the way the game unfolded.
“The blocked kick killed us,” he said. “It began our downfall. It put them up by 2. We probably should have run play action against them some more to keep them honest. I have some regrets there. When they went up another score, the momentum swung there way and stayed that way.”
CHS 6 0 15 7 28
WHS 7 0 0 6 13
Scoring
First Quarter
WHS–Hall 1 run. Howard kick (4:40)
CHS–Eddington 1 run. Kick failed. (0:50)
Third Quarter
CHS—Young 54 pass from M. Charpia. B. Charpia 2 pass from M. Charpia. (9:00)
CHS–Engel 19 punt return. McCall kick. (2:10)
Fourth Quarter
CHS–Eddington 80 run. McCall kick. (6:50)
WHS–Canady 11 run. Kick failed. (5:45)
Team stats WHS CHS
First Downs 13 14
Rushing Yards 69 213
Comp- Attempts-int 13/22/0 5/9/0
Passing Yards 125 93
Fumbles – Lost 1/0 1/0
Penalties -Yards 3/15 2/25
RUSHING: WHS—M. Canady 14-48. R. Hall 10-21. D. King 5-5. T. Gallman 1-(-5). CHS—J. Eddington 20-117. M. Charpia 8-52. R. Lopez 8-31. B.Charpia 3/13. A. Gonzales 1-1. A. Young 1-0. S. Washington 1-(-1).
PASSING: WHS—D. King 13-22-0 125 yards. CHS—M. Charpia 5-8-0 93 yards. B. Charpia 0-1-0 0 yards.
RECEIVING: WHS—A. Lee 4-46. D. Williams 4-34. V. Smith 3-20. R. Hall 1-17. T. Gallman 1-8.
CHS—B. Charpia 4-39. A. Young 1-54.