By Thomas Grant Jr.
A shutout road win over a district rival would often prompt satisfactory emotions from the winning team.
Instead, it was a less than celebratory mood around Westwood following the 31-0 victory over fellow Richland School District member Spring Valley.
This was especially true following head coach Stephen Burris’ post-game speech. Imploring his players to “grow up” and pay better “attention to detail”, he was less enthusiastic about the overall effort than the win.
“I think the takeaway tonight is just grow up,” he said. “Focus a lot on the things we need to do. On a personal level, just mature and not responding when you’ve been wronged or mistreated, whatever the case is during the course of a game or just life in general. We’ve just got to grow up as a program.
“It’s an individual challenge with everybody in the program. Coaches, players, managers, trainers, everybody. We have to mature as a unit and as we do that, we’ll start to see some of our potential. Tonight, we responded in some situations where I wish he hadn’t. We were sluggish coming out. Make any excuse you want to, you have to play football. We didn’t do a good job of that earlier.”
Both teams struggled offensively in a scoreless first quarter. In the case of the Vikings, it saw their streaks of consecutive scoreless games extend to four, scoreless quarters to 18 and quarters without a touchdown to 21.
Spring Valley’s defense did find success pressuring quarterback Carrington Carter. Defensive lineman Ethan Clarke and safety Dylan Redden teamed up for a couple of sacks and defensive back Marcel Goodwin made a touchdown-saving pass deflection in the end zone in the second quarter.
This forced Westwood to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Muhsin Yakubu to break less a scoreless tie.
Just before halftime, the Redhawks recovered a fumble. Jayden Boyd, who announced his decommitment to Duke following the game, then provided a momentous boost.
He took the shovel pass from Carter and made his way through the Viking defense for a 44-yard touchdown as time expired in the half.
Boyd’s presence was especially valuable with running back Angelo Rios out with an injury.
“Anything you get a kid that can do the things that he can with the ball in his hands, you’ve got to find ways to get him the ball,” Burris said.
Boyd opened the second half in similar fashion. This time, he returned the opening kickoff 43 yards into Spring Valley territory.
A person foul penalty called after Boyd was hit out of bounds moved the football to the 29-yard line. This led to the first of two touchdown runs by Quentin McGill Jr. to make it 17-0 one minute into the second half.
Boyd added another touchdown courtesy of a 12-yard pass from Carter. Westwood’s defense preserved the shutout in shutting down the Vikings’ passing game.
Westwood (5-2, 2-1) heads on the road to face Lugoff-Elgin.
Blazers win 4th straight
Ridge View remains in the running for the Region 5-5A title with their fourth straight victory.
The 26-0 win for the team’s second straight shutout. It was accomplished against a Demons’ team that entered the game averaging30 points a game.
A week after rushing for 201 yards, Spencer Bobian scored three touchdowns. Adam Keefe also had a scoring run for the Blazers (5-2, 3-0).
OTHER NORTHEAST SCORES
Laurence Manning 61, Cardinal Newman 6
A.C. Flora 49, Richland Northeast 0
Former Blazer scores
in S.C. State victory
Wide receiver Jordan Smith of South Carolina State had a 23-yard touchdown reception in the 22-16 win over North Carolina A&T.
A graduate of Ridge View, Smith had four receptions for 42 yards. For the season, Smith has 27 receptions for 291 yards and two touchdowns.
RPI RATINGS
(Class 5A – Division I)
Upper State
Dutch Fork, 5-1, 0.72529, Ridge View, 5-2, 0.65989, Dorman, 5-2, 0.64959, Rock Hill, 5-3, 0.60990, Spartanburg, 4-3, 0.58503 (Up 2 spots), J.F. Byrnes, 4-3, 0.58280, Clover, 4-3, 0.57577, Boiling Springs, 4-3, 0.51704, Mauldin, 3-4, 0.50394, Blythewood, 3-5, 0.42765, Spring Valley, 2-6, 0.38537, JL Mann, 1-6, 0.37391, Wade Hampton, 0-7, 0.25793
(Class 5A – Division II)
Lower State
Irmo, 7-0, 0.79844, White Knoll, 5-2, 0.63241, Myrtle Beach, 5-2, 0.62262, Lucy Beckham, 4-2, 0.61595, Berkeley, 5-2, 0.60182, Westwood, 5-2, 0.53815, Lugoff-Elgin, 4-4, 0.52339, West Florence, 3-4, 0.46067, North Myrtle Beach, 3-4, 0.46237, St. James, 2-5, 0.44641, Conway, 2-4, 0.43881, Socastee, 1-6, 0.37289, Chapin, 0-7, 0.34894, Goose Creek, 0-7, 0.29878
(Class 4A)
Upper State
South Pointe, 6-1, 0.76502
Seneca, 7-1, 0.64935
Daniel, 6-1, 0.64174
Wren, 5-2, 0.63251 (Up 2 spots)
Camden, 5-2, 0.62984 (Down 1 spot)
AC Flora, 7-1, 0.62908
Fountain Inn, 4-3, 0.53134
Westside, 3-4, 0.49650 (Up 2 spots)
Emerald, 3-4, 0.49616 (Down 1 spot)
Greer, 4-4, 0.43925 (Up 1 spot)
Blue Ridge, 4-2, 0.52464
York, 2-5, 0.44233
Lancaster, 2-5, 0.41317 (Up 2 spots)
Travelers Rest, 2-5, 0.38373 (Up 1 spot)
Dreher, 3-5, 0.38338 (Down 1 spot)
Laurens, 1-6, 0.35430 (Up 1 spot)
Pickens, 2-5, 0.34155 (Down 1 spot)
Berea, 1-6, 0.29087
Richland Northeast, 0-8, 0.26650
Southside, 0-7, 0.22449
S.C. PREP FOOTBALL MEDIA POLL
Class 5A
1. Irmo (16) (7-0), 2. Northwestern (3) (7-1), 3. Dutch Fork (5-1), 4. Summerville (6-1), 5. Greenwood (6-1), 6. Ridge View (5-2), 7. James Island (6-1), 8. Gaffney (5-2), 9. Indian Land (7-0), 10. TL Hanna (6-1)
Others receiving votes: Dorman, Stratford, Spartanburg, White Knoll, Sumter, Greenville, Byrnes
(Photo by Thomas Grant Jr.)
