Dutch Fork’s Colin James (82) eludes the tackle by Tyrell Gallman (1). (Photo/DeAnna Robinson)
Dutch Fork-33, Westwood-3
BLYTHEWOOD – Westwood played the biggest football game in its brief history Friday night against defending class 4A, Division I state champion Dutch Fork. The Region IV-4A title was at stake and the Redhawks looked to remain the last unbeaten team in 4A, but it wasn’t to be as the Silver Foxes rolled to a 33-3 victory in a contest that was held up by two weather delays.
“We didn’t minimize the mistakes like we should have,” Westwood head coach Rodney Summers said. “Those guys are good. That’s why they’re the defending state champs. I don’t think we’ll see a better team than that next week or into the playoffs. I just hope this doesn’t define us next week and into the playoffs. We have to play better football going forward.”
The Redhawks (9-1, 3-1) opened the game with an 11-play drive that reached the Silver Foxes’ 27-yard line, but they we stuffed for no gain on a fourth-and-2 play to turn the ball over on downs.
The teams then traded a couple of three-and-outs before Dutch Fork took a 3-0 lead on a 27-yard field goal from Tyler Bass.
Summers was feeling good at that point, but two plays later they would quickly find themselves in a bigger deficit. Dutch Fork defensive lineman Andrew Dunlap broke through the line and stripped the ball away during a quarterback-running back exchange and easily scored from 12 yards out. That gave the Silver Foxes a 10-0 lead with 13 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
“If we don’t get the strip right there and give them a touchdown right there it could have been different,” Summers said. “The defense was playing really good and we should have gone into the half down 6-3 in a worst-case scenario.”
Westwood answered back with its only scoring drive of the night. Andrew Plante had runs of 19 and 20 yards on the drive and Nick Leveretter added a 22-yard run, but after stalling out inside the 10-yard line, they settled for a 27-yard field goal by Brandon Howard.
“We couldn’t punch it in right there but we came away with points so you have to feel satisfied, it just wasn’t what we wanted,” Summers said. “But give Dutch Fork credit; we couldn’t ever really get it back down there.”
Bass added a 30-yard field goal that gave the visitors a 13-3 lead at the half. The teams sat through an extended delay due to lightning in the area and after a 40 minute respite, returned to play.
The Redhawks looked like they would get the ball in decent field position, but Dutch Fork converted a third-and-16 situation into an 86-yard scoring play. Tate Fant hit Alex DeBoer at about his own 40-yard line and the speedy receiver outraced the Westwood secondary the final 60 yards for the score.
“That hurt,” Summers said. “Our guy opened up the wrong way in coverage and it’s something he’s learned from. We’ll just have to coach them up.”
Bass added a 36-yard field goal to extend the lead to 23-3 on the next possession when the second delay stopped play for 33 minutes. Westwood went three-and-out on the drive after the delay and gave the Silver Foxes a short field to work with.
Matt Colburn scored on a 12-yard run to cap a four-play, 38-yard drive to extend the lead to 30-3.
Adonus Lee led the Westwood offensive attack. The North-South All-star selection had five receptions for 111 yards. Plante was held to just 82 yards on 20 carries and Leveretter finished with 25 rushing yards and 127 passing.
“They started scoring and we started doing some things we aren’t used to doing and getting out of our offense,” Summers said. “Hopefully we learned some things and we’ll be ready to go next week.”
DF: 10-3-17-3 – 33
W: 0-3-0-0 – 3
Scoring
First Quarter
DF – Tyler Bass 27 FG. 0:52.
DF – Andrew Dunlap 12 fumble return (Bass kick). 0:13.
Second Quarter
W – Brandon Howard 27 FG. 9:05.
DF – Bass 30 FG. 1:41.
Third Quarter
DF – Alec DeBoer 86 pass from Tate Fant (Bass kick). 10:58.
DF – Bass 36 FG. 6:55.
DF – Matt Colburn 12 run (Bass kick). 3:43.
Fourth Quarter
DF – Bass 35 FG. 4:41.
Team Stats
DF W
First Downs 13 14
Rushes/Yards 33-170 42-150
Passing Yards 163 127
Comp-Att-Int 5-13-0 8-21-1
Fumbles/Lost 0-0 1-1
Punts 3-31.3 3-29.7
Penalties 6-30 4-27
Individual Stats
RUSHING: DF – Matt Colburn 26-126, Tate Fant 4-32, Bryson Cannon 3-12. W – Andrew Plante 20-82, Nick Leveretter 12-25, Winslow Powell 2-11, J. Trapp 8-32.
PASSING: DF – Fant 5-13-0-163. W – Leveretter 8-21-1-127.
RECEIVING: DF – Colin James 3-69, Alec DeBoer 1-86, Will Sweeper 1-8. W – Adonus Lee 5-111, B. temple 2-8, Willie McConnell 1-8.
