BLYTHEWOOD – The Westwood football team’s defense blanked West Florence for three out of four quarters Friday night.
The Knights’ two quick scores from backup quarterback Kielan Thomas, within one minute early in the second quarter, were all they needed to hand the Redhawks a 13-8 loss at District Two Stadium.
Thomas made touchdown runs of six and two yards, while the Knights defense stifled Westwood quarterback Carrington Carter and forced three turnovers.
Westwood managed a 1-yard Angelo Rios touchdown and a Carter-to-Uriah Lofton 2-point conversion pass in the closing seconds of the first half. The Redhawks were not able to carry their momentum to the second half.
“That’s a good football team, very physical, very strong up front on offense and defense,” Westwood head coach Robert O’Connell said of the Knights. “We’ve been in that spot before, where we score right before the half and get the ball back in the second half, so we felt like we gained a little bit of momentum there but we just couldn’t put a drive together. Hat’s off to our defense, once again they put us in a position to win, but we just couldn’t do it offensively.”
Westwood (5-4, 3-2 Region 5-5A) had 124 passing yards and rushed for 124 yards, but two interceptions and a Carter fumble blunted the offensive effort. Rios, who rushed for 245 yards and two TDs in the team’s 30-24 win at Lugoff-Elgin a week ago, had 92 yards on 14 carries, but just 12 yards on eight attempts in the second half.
“We had some guys step up big time. We had a little situation at school today where one of our better players decided to be selfish,” West Florence Jody Jenrette said without naming the player. “We just came up here with a bunch of guys who cared about each other and fought and battled. I’m so impressed with how our football team played tonight, it was awesome.”
With starting quarterback Avery Weaver out most of the game because of an injury, Knights running back Zion Hill powered the offense with 113 yards on 20 carries. Thomas passed for just 29 yards but rushed 14 times for 72 yards and the only scores for West Florence (6-3, 3-2)
After a scoreless first quarter in which West Florence turned the ball over on downs twice but Westwood couldn’t get out of the shadow of its goalposts, the Knights finally caught a break early in the second quarter.
West Florence recovered a Westwood fumble at the Redhawks’ 30-yard line, and four plays later Thomas scored on a 6-yard touchdown run.
The Knights made an onside kick and recovered the ball at the Westwood 39-yard line. Hill’s 37-yard run set up Thomas’ second TD run with 9:41 left in the first half.
Up until that point, Westwood had run seven offensive plays. The Redhawks turned the ball over on downs on its next possession, but the defense held West Florence to a 3-out.
Taking the ball on its 18-yard line, Westwood struggled at yardage until Rios finally got sprung for a 59-yard run that put the Redhawks at the West Florence 23-yard line.
In the final 20 seconds of the half, Carrington Carter completed a pass to Sean Goddard for a first-and-goal at the one. Rios took the ball in for a touchdown with seven seconds left. Carter connected with Uriah Lofton for the 2-point conversion.
With West Florence leading 13-8 at halftime, Westwood looked to take the lead when it took the kickoff to open the second half. As it turned out, neither offense scored again, as both defenses called the shots the rest of the way.
The Redhawks made two first downs but Knights defender Bobby Patterson picked off a Carter pass to end the drive.
After that, the Westwood defense didn’t give up a first down in the third quarter, blocked a field goal, forced three punts. The Knights blocked a punt, sacked Carter three times, forced a turnover on downs and two other punts.
In the final minutes of the game West Florence took over at its own 39-yard line and picked up four first downs as the Knights reached the Westwood 12-yard line. At that point the Redhawks defense pushed them back and forced a turnover on downs at the 12.
With about three minutes left on the clock, the Redhawks looked to make a long drive similar to what they did at Lugoff-Elgin the week before in their 30-24 victory.
Against the Knights, Carter kept running into a strong pass rush. West Florence lineman Jamie Williamson sacked Carter for a 7-yard loss on third and 10, and Carter ultimately threw an interception with about two minutes left.
With the ball at the Westwood 39, West Florence picked up two first downs, then kneeled twice to drain the clock and seal the win.
“I will say this, Westwood is the single most improved
football team from one season to the next in all my 28 years as a football
coach,” Jenrette said of the Redhawks, which were 1-9 last season. “We got Melo
back, Romelo Patterson has been out for a while, he came back tonight and
played well, and Jamie Williamson is about as good as anyone I’ve seen in South
Carolina. We’ve just got a really, really good, defensive effort. We played our
tails off. Every now and then you’ve got to play a defensive game and get a
win, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Westwood plays at Sumter (8-0, 4-0), which was idle last week, Friday.
West Florence plays host to Spring Valley (0-9, 0-5), which lost 41-10 to Lugoff-Elgin last week, on Nov. 8.
West Florence – 0-13-0-0 – 13
Westwood – 0-8-0-0 – 8
Second Quarter
WF – Keilen Thomas 6 run (Sarah Cashin kick) 10:24
WF – Thomas 2 run (pass failed) 9:41
W – Rios 1 run (Uriah Lofton pass from Carrington Carter) :07
WF WHS
First downs 18 9
Rushes-yds 45-245 31-124
Passing yds 29 124
Att-Com-Int 17-6-0 21-10-2 Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-1
Penalties-yds 9-55 5-32
Punts-avg 4-34.0 3-23.0
RUSHING: WF – Zion Hill 20-113, Kielan Thomas 14-92, Keyshawn Johnson 7-36, Avery Weaver 2-12, Chase Anderson 1-9, Team 1-3. W – Angelo Rios 16-92, Carrington Carter 9-24, Jovan Howard 3-7, Kham Cunningham 1-2, Team 2-(-2).
PASSING: WF – Kielan Thomas 4-14-0, Avery Weaver 2-3-0. W – Carrington Carter 10-21-2.
RECEIVING: WF – Keyshawn Johnson 4-20, Zion Hill 1-6, Jayaun Perkins 1-3. W – Cameron Bennett 3-35, Angelo Rios 3-23, Sean Goddard 2-32, Uriah Lofton 1-16, Kham Cunningham 1-8.
