LUGOFF–Angelo Rios walked out of the locker room at Lugoff-Elgin without his pads Friday night.
The Westwood sophomore stood maybe 5 feet, eight inches in the shadows of an emptying stadium, his 160-some-pound frame almost lost in the post-game darkness. Behind him, the muffled sounds of his teammates sounding off in the locker room, celebrating another Region 5-5A win.
“I just want to thank the O-line. Without them blocking, none of it could happen,” he said, “and the team in general, just pushing everybody to be their best and having a great game.”
When he had his pads on, the spry running back led the Redhawks rushing attack in rallying past the Demons to a 30-24 victory. Rios finished the night with 244 yards and two touchdowns on 36 carries, with one of those scores coming in a second-half surge that tied the game at 24 with about seven minutes to go.
Carrington Carter’s 8-yard TD run with 6:08 left gave Westwood (5-3, 3-1) the lead for the first time in the game—and the win.
“I’m just really proud of our kids,” head coach Robert O’Connell said. “We were down 12 at the half, and we obviously didn’t play very well defensively in the first half, but we came out and shut ’em out in the second half and we did some offensive things to win. Really proud of our effort.”
Westwood’s effort was especially big because with senior kicker Cullen Henderson out because of an injury, the team did it without a kicker. The Redhawks went 0-for-4 in 2-point conversion attempts, and Rios—when he wasn’t rushing—tried an extra point after Carrington’s touchdown, but his kick didn’t reach the crossbar.
“Right now we’re down a kicker, and you get behind the points and they (the scores) get funky. We make it a little harder on our part because you’ve gotta do the math and all that, but I’m so proud of the team tonight.”
It didn’t look good for the Redhawks early on.
Lugoff-Elgin (3-6, 0-5) took a 14-0 lead by the end of the first quarter on two Aiden Fitzgerald touchdown passes. The first was a 10-yard toss to Eric Richardson at the 7:20 mark, and the second was a 31-yard strike to Jeremiah Benson with 1:46 left in the first quarter.
Westwood finally got on the scoreboard on Rios’ 8-yard touchdown run at the 9:13 mark of the second quarter, but the defense had problems with stopping the Demons’ offense.
Fitzgerald made it 21-6 on his 15-yard run for a score with 6:12 left in the first half.
Westwood’s next drive, lifted with a 55-yard pass from Carter to Cameron Bennett, got closed out with Carter’s 11-yard pass to Sean Goddard in the closing minutes of the second quarter.
Just before intermission, Lugoff-Elgin kicker Eli Branham hit a 30-yard field goal that gave the Demons a 24-12 halftime lead.
Intermission couldn’t come at a better time for the Redhawks.
“We had a talk in the locker room, and that motivated us a lot,” Rios said. “The whole team, the defense came out and played harder, It was just a team effort.”
Westwood’s offense stayed with the plan and got a score on Jovan Howard’s 41-yard touchdown run at the 6:52 mark of the third quarter. While Carrington and the offense kept on working out the kinks—the quarterback threw an interception on the Redhawks next possession, the defense woke up and kept Lugoff-Elgin from regaining its first-half swagger, holding the Demons to just two first downs.
Westwood’s offense turned the corner late in the third quarter with a 15-play, 82-yard scoring drive that straddled the third and fourth quarters. Rios capped that drive with his second touchdown of the evening, a 5-yard run, to tie the game at 24.
When the kicker-less Redhawks tried a kickoff that went down more as an onside kick, a Lugoff-Elgin player tried to catch the football about 20 yards downfield, but it bounced to the ground and a Westwood player pounced on it.
Gifted an extra possession, the Redhawks made the most of it. Westwood kept the ball on the ground for four plays and 20 yards, with runs from Rios, Carter, and Howard.
Carter’s 8-yard score proved to be the game-winner. The Westwood defense then shut down the Demons, forcing a turnover on downs. The Redhawks picked up two first downs in clock-draining runs, and kneeled in a victory formation twice to seal the win.
Lugoff-Elgin plays at Spring Valley Friday in its regular-season finale. The Vikings (0-8, 0-4) had an open date last week.
Westwood plays host to West Florence (5-3, 2-2) which fell 41-16 to Ridge View last week, Friday.
Westwood – 0-12-6-12 – 30
Lugoff-Elgin – 14-10-0-0 – 24
First Quarter
L – Eric Richardson 10 pass from Aiden Fitzgerald (Eli Branham kick) 7:20
L – Jeremiah Benson 31 pass from Fitzgerald (Branham kick) 1:46
Second Quarter
W – Angelo Rios 8 run (pass failed) 9:13
L – Fitzgerald 15 run (Branham kick) 6:12
W – Sean Goddard 11 pass from Carrington Carter (pass failed) 1;53
L – Branham 30 field goal. :02
Third Quarter
W – Jovan Howard 41 run (run failed) 6:42
Fourth Quarter
W – Rios 5 run (run failed) 7:22
W – Carter 8 run (kick failed) 6:05
WHS L-E
First Downs 22 8
Rushes-yds 55-357 15-37
Passing yds 119 214
Att-Com-Int 15-9-1 20-16-0
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-2
Penalties-yds 7-43 6-50
Punts-avg. 2-21.0 3-35.3
RUSHING
W – Angelo Rios 37-244, Carrington Carter 7-36, Jovan Howard 6-67, Quentin McGill Jr. 2-12, Kham Cunningham 1-(-3), Team 1-1. L – Ry’Keez Brown 5-14, Aiden Fitzgerald 2-15, Jar’kese Grant 5-15, Eric Richardson 2-(-4), TEAM 1-(-3).
PASSING
W – Carrington Carter 9-15-1. L – Aiden Fitzgerald 16-20-0.
RECEIVING
W – Cameron Bennett 2-57, Kham Cunningham 2-28, Angelo Rios 2-11, Sean Goddard 1-11, Collen Scott 1-3, Quentin McGill Jr. 1-9. L – Eric Richardson 7-123, Shamil Saadiq 4-22, Jeremiah Benson 3-49, Myles Hamilton 2-22.