COLUMBIA – The Westwood football team did everything it could in limiting Richland Northeast quarterback and N.C. State commit Will Wilson Friday night at Cavaliers Field.
Wilson and his receivers just happened to get enough passes strung together for three scoring drives en route to a 25-0 victory over the Redhawks.
Westwood (1-2), coming off a 35-0 shutout of Lakewood, managed several long drives against RNE (3-0), but the Cavaliers’ defense forced three turnovers on downs and returned an interception for a touchdown.
“If you told me before the game that we’d hold them to three scores on offense, I’d feel pretty good about our chance to win,” O’Connell said. “We talked about continuing to try to grow from it and continue to get better, which we have in the past three weeks. It didn’t turn out the way we wanted but the biggest thing in these non-region games is to continue to grow and improve.”
Westwood moved the ball consistently on the runs of Angelo Rios and occasional passes from Carrington Carter to several Redhawks receivers. Carter was 9-for-17 for 88 yards with one interception. Rios had 65 yards on 16 carries.
Wilson meanwhile, managed 206 yards and two touchdown passes on 21-of-29 passing. He threw one to Isiah Smalls from 10 yards out in the second quarter and tossed a 14-yarder to Blake Betette in the third quarter.
Wilson also had 10 carries for 65 rushing yards.
“It wasn’t pretty, but it was efficient and it worked, so I’ll take it,” head coach Walt Wilson said. “We’re just trying to get better every time we touch the field.”
With the win, RNE (3-0) is off to its best start since 2010. That year the Cavaliers started 4-0 and finished 7-5.
The Cavaliers got a running start on Westwood on defense. On third-and-four at the Redhawks 32-yard line late in the first quarter, Carrington threw a dart downfield that was tipped—and fell into the hands of RNE defender Chris Asuzu around midfield. Asuzu dodged traffic on the way to the end zone at the 2:55 mark of the first quarter.
When Westwood got the ball back, Carter led the way on a 13-play 66-yard drive to set up a 37-yard Cullen Henderson field goal attempt. Henderson’s kick fell a couple yards short of the crossbar and the Cavaliers took over at the RNE 21-yard line
From there Wilson put together his first scoring drive, connecting with Camryn Buckley, Isiah Smalls and Dillon Hughy to set up a second-and-4 at the Westwood 10-yard line. Wilson connected with Smalls, who ran in for RNE’s second score. The conversion pass failed, giving RNE a 12-0 lead with 4:21 left in the first half.
Westwood punted on the next possession and the Cavs were at midfield when the first-half clock expired.
RNE took possession to open the second half. Wilson led his team on an 11-play, 56-yard drive that Wilson capped with his 14-yard TD pass to Betette about three minutes into the second half. The Cavaliers failed to convert again, making it 18-0.
Westwood went on a long drive that ended with a turnover on downs. RNE then sapped the clock on a long drive of its own.
Darin Brown capped that drive with a 6-yard TD run, and the Cavaliers finally made good on a points-after attempt, even when slapped with two penalties that set the ball on the 23-yard line for the PAT. Placekicker Jorge Rodriguez put RNE up 25-0 with 6:53 left in the game when his low kick from 40 yards out cleared the crossbar by a yard.
Westwood’s final possession of the night ended on a turnover on downs at midfield.
The Cavaliers head to Nation Ford to take on the Falcons. Nation Ford fell 35-30 to River Bluff Friday night.
Westwood is at Airport (0-2) Friday night. Orangeburg-Wilkinson beat the Eagles 14-9 Friday.
Westwoood – 0-0-0-0 – 0
Richland Northeast – 6-6-6-7 – 25
First Quarter
R – Chris Asuzu 50 interception return (kick failed) 2:55
Second Quarter
R – Isiah Smalls 10 pass from Will Wilson (pass failed) 4:21
Third Quarter
R – Blake Betette 14 pass from Wilson (run failed) 7:16
Fourth Quarter
R – Darin Brown 6 run (Jorge Rodriguez kick) 6:53
WHS RNE
First downs 12 19
Rushes-yards 32-100 21-93
Passing yards 88 206
Att-Com-Int 17-9-1 29-21-0
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 4-30 14-120
Punts-avg 1-46.0 1-15.0
RUSHING: W – Angelo Rios 16-65, Quentin McGill Jr. 9-37, Carrington Carter 6-(-4), Kham Cunningham 1-1. R – Camryn Buckley 11-28, Will Wilson10-65.
PASSING: W – Carrington Carter 9-17-1. R – Will Wilson 21-29-0.
RECEIVING: W – Quentin McGill 4-24, Sean Goddard 3-40, Kham Cunningham 1-19, Angelo Rios 1-5. R – Blake Betette 7-74, Isiah Smalls 7-59, Dillon Hughy 6-65, Camryn Buckley 1-8.