Westwood quarterback Nick Leveretter surges forward for a first down. (Photo/Ross Burton)
LEXINGTON – The undefeated Westwood Redhawks remained so after beating the Wildcats of Lexington High School 35-7 last Friday night at Lexington. The Redhawks are now 5-0 with the coming week off.
The rain had just stopped before the kickoff, but the field was soaking wet and very slippery. Before the kick, Westwood head coach Rodney Summers had some intel on the opposition.
“They like to throw the ball and they have a good runner too,” Summers said. “They are going to test us tonight, test our defense. Hopefully the wet ground will even things out some. We think we can run the ball, but we will also take advantage of some things we are doing. Andrew (Plante) is the man of the night, mainly because we had to sit out John Trapp and Diamond Williams. That means Adonus Lee will be our primary receiver.”
Summers was nothing but right about Lee. Lee has been hampered with a shoulder injury for much of the early season and has not been able to live up to his potential. That all changed Friday night when Lee had a career performance as receiver. Lee pulled down three out of the four passes that were aimed at him for a total of 132 yards. Two of the three receptions were good for touchdowns.
Westwood had the ball first. After a lengthy drive and five first downs, Westwood found themselves on the Lexington 1-yard line, but out came the yellow laundry, negating the play and ultimately costing the Redhawks 25 yards. The Redhawks could only manage a field goal after the possession, which took 10 minutes off the clock.
The Wildcats took the ensuing kick, but despite three first downs could only manage to get 2 yards into Redhawk territory before being forced to punt late in the quarter. The next Lexington possession ended at the Westwood 35-yard line when they went for the fourth down and 6 conversion. Donnie Baker fired one out to Slade Carroll who snagged the ball, but fell 3 yards short of the first down.
The Adonus Lee show opened on the third play when Nick Leveretter sent the ball flying way downfield into Lee’s arms. Lee hauled it in and scored, 71 yards downfield from the line of scrimmage. The half ended following an interception by Westwood’s Terrell Vaughn and a successful 33-yard field goal attempt by Brandon Howard with 1 second to go. At halftime, the score was 13-0, Westwood.
“(I’m) happy with Adonus’ game as our default receiver (in the absence of Diamond Williams),” Summers said at the half. “We are running the ball well. It looked like they are getting some third downs on us from the draws and so forth. We have to fix some things on blocking. The team is bending but not breaking.”
The third quarter began with a kickoff to the Wildcats. The possession ended with another failed fourth down conversion attempt. When the ‘Hawks took over, Leveretter again connected with Lee from mid-field to the Lexington 13-yard line. Three plays later, Plante crossed the goal line for the touchdown.
Lexington went three-and-out on their next possession, and their punt was downed at the Westwood 10. Working steadily toward the Lexington end zone, Westwood mostly kept to the ground. Jalen Smith substituted for Leveretter at quarterback halfway through the drive. Smith’s 26-yard completion to Lee gave the Redhawks a 26-point lead in the game.
The final Redhawk score came when Plante broke free of Lexington defenders and ran the ball 42 yards to the Wildcat 1-yard line. With 6:53 to go in the game, and the win in the bag for Westwood, out came the Westwood players with clean uniforms to finish off the game. No doubt, the first-string defenders could keep Lexington on their side of the goal line, but to his credit, Summers left in the players who don’t often get experience. Consequently, the Wildcats were able to score with a minute and a half to go in the game. At the final buzzer, Westwood prevailed 32-7.
Summers plans to use the off-week to correct some things and get the team healthy.
“We will focus on West Florence a little bit. Focus on some things we are doing (wrong) and correct them,” Summers said. “We will go back to fundamentals, go back and fix some easy things. West Florence was really strong last year. Their quarterback was hurt in an earlier game. I don’t know if he will be back or not.”
The Redhawks next host West Florence High School at home on Oct. 3 for homecoming.
WHS: 3-10-6-13 – 32
LHS: 0-0-0-7 – 7
Scoring
First Quarter
WHS – Brandon Howard 36 FG. (6:10)
Second Quarter
WHS – Adonus Lee 71 pass from Nick Leveretter. B. Howard kick. (6:44)
WHS – B. Howard 33 FG. (00:01)
Third Quarter
WHS – Andrew Plante 3 run. Kick failed. (5:49)
Fourth Quarter
WHS – A. Lee 26 pass from Jalen Smith. B. Howard kick. (10:20)
WHS – A. Plante 1 run. Run failed. (6:53)
LHS – Jayson Hopper 9 pass from Donnie Baker. Christian Kinsley kick. (1:33)
Team Stats
WHS LHS
First Downs 13 14
Rushes/Yards 42-239 37-140
Passing Yards 151 108
C-A-INT 4-8-0 13-19-1
Fumbles/Lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties/Yards 6-51 6-30
Individual Stats
RUSHING: WHS – Andrew Plante 20-111, Nick Leveretter 9-68, Winslow Powell 5-24, Jalen Smith 4-20, Montre Miller 1-10, Rudy Mitchell 1-3, Rashawn Green 2-3. LHS – Slade Carroll 26-127, James Ricker 5-13, Donnie Baker 5-1, Jayson Hopper 1-(-1).
RECEIVING: WHS – Adonus Lee 3-132, Willie McConnel 1-19. LHS – Jayson Hopper 10-86, Tyler Schadewald 1-15, Dai’Quan Wells 1-4, Slade Carroll 1-3.
PASSING: WHS – Nick Leveretter 3-6, 125 yards, TD; Jalen Smitth 1-2, 26 yards, TD. LHS – Donnie Baker 13-19, 108 yards, INT, TD.
