Westwood’s Rudy Mitchell (34) gashes the Demon defense Monday night. (Photo/Ross Burton)
LUGOFF – The weather issues of the last several days caused the game scheduled for Friday to be moved ahead to Monday. The Westwood Redhawks travelled to Lugoff to play Lugoff-Elgin High School and came home a convincing 56-14 winner.
League rules prevented the Redhawks from practicing during the week out of school, and instead the players got together for some disaster relief projects. They got some time in the gym on Saturday, but that was about it. Conversely, Lugoff-Elgin was able to practice all week.
“We’re not going to use the lack of practice time as an excuse,” Westwood head coach Rodney Summers said before the kickoff. “Tonight we are going to come out and establish the run. It’ll be the Rudy Mitchell show, if all goes as planned. If that works, maybe we can do some play action. We are going to try out Deuntrey Gallman in the running back slot to back up Mitchell. If we lose Mitchell, we have Devon Preston as well. Their quarterback is the kind of player we have to be on the lookout for. He can run and he can throw. We need to figure out how to contain him.”
The game began with both teams moving the ball well downfield. However, Mitchell’s superiority as running back, coupled with Westwood’s ability to control the ball and manage the clock, kept the ball out of the hands of the Demons. At the end of the first quarter, Lugoff-Elgin was still in it, but two touchdowns behind, 14-0.
In the second quarter, the Demons struck first with a score by Jermaine Jenkins in the opening seconds. However, Mitchell scored three more times in the quarter, and Westwood went to the locker rooms with a comfortable 34-7 lead.
“We are driving well, running well, the play action pass is working and the defense is settling down,” Summers said at the break. “They caught us on that reverse pass, but otherwise we just have to keep it going.”
Summers also said he would give Mitchell the second half off, trying out some JV players and some alternate running backs and quarterbacks.
The second half began with some very bad luck for the Demons. In the opening seconds of the third quarter, they fumbled twice, each time resulting in a quick score for Westwood, once by Malik Horton and once by Erricey Canady.
Being ahead 47-7 at that point, all of the Redhawks who played in the first half, kickers notwithstanding, came out to be replaced with the players who had clean uniforms. Despite the Redhawks’ youth against the Demons’ best, Westwood scored again on a quarterback keeper by Rashawn Green.
The final Redhawk score of the game would be a rare safety. A bad L-E snap was fumbled and picked up by Jenkins, who could not get out of his own end zone before being brought down.
The youth gave up one more score to the more experienced L-E players when Bradwin Salmond got off a great pass and hit Gunnar Catoe who ran it in for the TD, putting the Demons at least into double figures.
Westwood (6-1/1-0) hosts Ridge View (4-3/1-0) Saturday at 6:30 at Richland 2 Stadium.
WHS: 14-20-22-0 – 56
LE: 0-7-0-7 – 14
Scoring
First Quarter
W – Rudy Mitchell 2 run (Brandon Howard kick). 10:28.
W – R. Mitchell 49 run (Jonathan Dyarmett kick). 6:38
Second Quarter
LE – Jermaine Jenkins 9 run (Greg Ruffner kick). 10:34.
W – R. Mitchell 3 run (B. Howard kick). 7:21.
W – R. Mitchell 6 run (J. Dyarmett kick). 4:23.
W – R. Mitchell 20 run (kick blocked). 0:36.
Third Quarter
W – Malik Horton 23 fumble return (J. Dyarmett kick). 10:26.
W – Erricey Canady 22 fumble return (B. Howard kick). 10:10.
W – Rashawn Green 11 run (J. Dyarmett kick). 0:46.
W – TEAM safety. 0:26.
Fourth Quarter
LE – Gunnar Catoe 8 pass from Bradwin Salmond (G. Ruffner kick). 5:23.
Team Stats
LE WHS
First Downs 13 21
Rushes/Yards 26-78 41-315
Passing Yards 87 73
C-A-I 11-23-0 7-12-0
Fumbles/Lost 3-3 0-0
Penalties/Yards 5-55 9-95
Punts/Avg. 3-28.3 3-31.3
Third Down Conv. 3-10 7-12
Fourth Down Conv. 1-4 1-2
Individual Stats
RUSHING: W – Rudy Mitchell 20-188, Devon Preston 9-54, Rashawn Green 5-33, Jalen Smith 2-19, Dermonti Romey 2-7, Brandon Blake 1-5, Malik Griffin 1-5, Jaylon Riley 1-4. LE – Jermaine Jenkins 14-52, Reddick Kelley 5-13, Rahmel Burton 5-12, Chandler Price 2-1.
PASSING: W – Jalen Smith 6-9, 69 yards; Rashawn Green 1-3, 4 yards. LE – Chandler Price 10-21, 63 yards, TD; Bradwin Salmond 1-2, 24 yards.
RECEIVING: W – Montre Miller 1-27, Deuntrey Gallman 2-19, Willie McConnel 1-11, Malik Griffin 1-7, Jaylen Robinson 1-5, Thomas Hemingway 1-4. LE – Elliot Campbell 5-49, Romez Coleman 1-24, Gunnar Catoe 2-15, A. Wells 1-7, Jermaine Jenkins 2-(-8).
