Westwood’s Andrew Plante (32) drags Tylo Kelley into the end zone. (Photo/Kristy Kimball Massey)
Westwood 35, Blythewood 0
BLYTHEWOOD – Undefeated Westwood came into Blythewood Stadium running strong Friday night, and came out on top of the Region IV-4A standings.
A time-sapping rushing attack aided the Redhawks defense in shutting out the Bengals 35-0. Meanwhile, Dutch Fork held off Spring Valley 25-12 to keep the Silver Foxes in a tie for first place with Westwood (9-0, 3-0) with two games left in the regular season.
Andrew Plante led the way for the Redhawks with 191 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries.
“He had some good runs tonight,” Westwood head coach Rodney Summers said. “The line does a great job and has done a great job all year.”
Not only did the offensive line spring Plante on several long gains, but also quarterback Nick Leveretter rushed for 99 yards and two scores to boost the Redhawks’ 416 total yards.
The Redhawks controlled the ball 28 minutes and 13 seconds compared with Blythewood’s 19:47. The Westwood defense limited Blythewood (3-6, 1-2) to 62 total yards in the game, sacking Bengals quarterback David Isreal three times.
“Our defense did an outstanding job limiting them,” Summers said.
Isreal left at the end of the third quarter with an injury to his right knee.
“Our offense just couldn’t click tonight,” Blythewood head coach Dan Morgan said. “We struggled trying to protect David, and the wide receivers dropped a few. But overall, Westwood is a dadgum good football team and they took it to us and physically beat us.”
Westwood may not have electrified the scoreboard in the first half, but the Redhawks dominated the time of possession with its grinding rushing offense led by Leveretter and Plante.
After stopping Blythewood’s opening possession, Westwood rumbled 54 yards on six plays, including Leveretter’s 22-yard touchdown run just short of 3 minutes into the game. After that score, the Redhawk defense held the Bengals to just three first downs, 19 offensive plays and a scant 16 total yards.
“They’ve got a bunch of guys over there, linebackers and all, who are really good,” Summers said. “We knew they were going to pack the box on us, but we were really fortunate that we could run the ball as well as we did.”
Between Leveretter’s opening score and Plante’s 1-yard TD run with 1 second left in the first half, Westwood rolled up 239 total offensive yards. Leveretter’s 95 yards on 11 carries and Plante’s 94 yards on 19 attempts accounted for most of it.
“Our defense did pretty good in the first half,” Morgan said. “But you look at their offensive line, they’re huge. They’re enormous up front, but our defense played strong in the first half. We just got worn out by the second half.”
Westwood got scores from Leveretter, John Trapp and Jalen Smith in the second half. Trapp’s score from 3 yards out, which made it 28-0 Redhawks, came after Plante’s game-long 67-yard rush.
Blythewood attempted a 33-yard field goal to close out the game. Placekicker Tucker Smith’s attempt missed, and Westwood closed out the shutout.
WHS: 7-7-14-7 – 35
BHS: 0-0-0-0 – 0
Scoring
First Quarter
W – Nick Leveretter 22 run (Brandon Howard kick) 9:01
Second Quarter
W – Andrew Plante 1 run (Howard kick) 0:01
Third Quarter
W – John Trapp 3 run (Howard kick) 7:44
W – Leveretter 8 run (Howard kick) 1:54
Fourth Quarter
W – Jalen Smith 2 run (Jonathon Dyarnett kick) 6:59
Team Stats
WHS BHS
First Downs 20 8
Rushes-Yards 57-380 27-43
Passing Yards 36 19
Att-Com-Int 11-5-1 16-7-1
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards 12-105 7-63
Punts-Avg. 2-36.0 7-36.9
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: WHS – Leveretter 15-99, Plante 26-191, Trapp 5-39, Mitchell 3-20. BHS – Thomas 15-38, Brunson 3-15, Isreal 9-(-10).
PASSING: WHS – Leveretter 10-5-1, Smith 1-0-0. BHS – Isreal 14-5-1, Brunson 2-2-0.
RECEIVING: WHS – Griffin 1-3, Lee 4-33. BHS – Richardson 3-13, Weber 2-4, Churn 2-2.
