Columbia -- A rested Westwood High School football team jumped out to a 33-21 lead on
A.C. Flora early in the second half on Friday.
Through three quarters, the Falcons had little hope of stopping Redhawk rushers Antwan
Nelson and Quentin McGill Jr.
On the upside, A.C. Flora welcomed back Aiden Mosely, who missed much of the season.
“He’s a really good football player and had some eligibility issues that had to get resolved
and we’re really glad to have him back,” Falcons head coach Ken Floyd said.
The junior running back made sure people remembered he was present.
While Westwood certainly had good fortune with Nelson’s and McGill’s huge gains, Mosely
was the one Falcons weapon that kept the game within reach — and ultimately sealed a 36-33
victory on Homecoming night at Memorial Stadium.
Mosely broke free for a 48-yard touchdown run to cut the Redhawks’ lead to 33-28 at the
5:07 mark of the third quarter, then powered an 80-yard scoring drive in the closing minutes of
the game. His score from two yards out gave A.C. Flora, which improved to 3-3 on the season,
a 34-33 lead, and Roper Wentzky’s pass to Kendall Byrd had the Falcons on top 36-33 with 3:10
left.
From there the A.C. Flora defense finally clamped down on the Westwood rushing attack,
forcing a turnover on downs with less than two minutes to go. One first down and two Wentzky
kneel downs later, and the Falcons notched a region-opening win.
“Our guys persevere through tough times. One thing I learned about toughness from living
in Winnsboro is that you grind your teeth and you don’t flinch,” Floyd said, referring to his
upbringing as a player on the Fairfield Central football team in the 1990s. “You push through,
and that’s what we’re trying to instill in this young group of kids, to keep fighting, keep pushing
through.”
Mosely finished the night with 227 yards — the entirety of the Falcons’ rushing yardage — and
three touchdowns on 27 carries. He also had four catches for 72 yards and a touchdown.
Wentzky finished the night 15-for-21 for 199 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions.
The sophomore had some shaky moments, but Floyd pointed out that Friday’s game was a big
learning experience for him.
“The night taught him some things,” Floyd said. “You’ve got to take what they give, you can’t
force the ball where you aren’t comfortable throwing it, You’ve got to make good decisions. And
the good thing about him is that I’m confident that he’s going to learn those lessons. He threw
two picks tonight, but I have the utmost confidence in him, he’s a good quarterback.”
Westwood, 1-5, came off an idle week and was fresh and ready for a region-opening
challenge.
“We came in with some fresh legs and Antwan and Q did a great job,” Westwood head
coach Robert O’Connell said. “That’s something that we talk about a lot. We want to run the
football a lot, and I think we did that well tonight.”
Nelson finished the night with 186 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. McGill had
163 yards and three TDs on 19 carries. Westwood rolled up 368 rushing yards on 51 attempts.
Both teams punted on their first possessions of the game, and that was about it for both
teams’ kicking games.
Flora scored first on Wentzky’s 7-yard pass to Tripp Van Vlake.
The Redhawks opened their rushing attack soon afterward. McGill’s 22-yard TD run tied the
game at 7 with 2:09 in the first, but Flora moved up 14-7 with Wentzky’s 42-yard TD pass to Mosely.
Nelson closed out a 72-yard Westwood drive with an 11-yard TD run at the 8-minute mark
of the second tied the game again at 14-14.
The Falcons made it 21-14 just 23 seconds later. A 48-yard Wentzky pass to Byrd set the
Falcons up at the 9, and Mosely rushed in from nine yards out for his first score of the game.
Westwood’s Ako Taylor intercepted a Wentzky pass at the halfway point of the second
quarter, which led to Nelson’s 1-yard TD run that evened the score at 21-21 with 3:22 left in the half.
The game was tied at 21 at halftime, and when play resumed McGill broke free for a 72-yard
touchdown run that gave Westwood a 27-21 lead.
A Falcons fumble on a 19-yard pass play gave the Redhawks the ball back near midfield, and
they methodically ran the ball right back at Flora until McGill scored again, this time on an 18-
yard run.
Carrington Carter’s 2-point conversion pass fell incomplete, but Westwood’s 33-21 lead with
its power running seemed insurmountable.
“That’s definitely something that we’re going to do. We’re going to fight all the way,” O’Connell
said. “I had no doubt that they were going to do that. We just needed one more play on each side
of the ball and we’d get a win. But we learn from it and get better.”
That is, until Mosely’s late-game efforts came into play.
“He’s a really good player and they had a lot of good people in front of him blocking,”
O’Connell said. “That combination is always real tough.”
Flora is at Richland Northeast (3-3, 0-1) and Wetwood is at home against Lugoff-Elgin (1-5, 0-1)
on Friday.
Westwood 7 14 12 0 – 33
A.C. Flora 14 7 7 8 – 36
First Quarter
F – Tripp Van Vlake 7 pass from Roper Wentzky (Grant Hill kick) 3:44
W – Quentin McGill Jr. 22 run (Cullen Henderson kick) 2:09
F – Aiden Mosely 42 pass from Wentzky (Hill kick) :19
Second Quarter
W – Antwan Nelson 11 run (Henderson kick) 8:00
F – Mosely 9 run (Hill kick) 7:37
W – Nelson 1 run (Henderson kick) 3:22
Third Quarter
W – McGill 72 run (kick failed) 10:59
W – McGill 18 run (pass failed) 8:02
F – Mosely 48 run (Hill kick) 5:07
Fourth Quarter
F – Mosely 2 run (Kendall Byrd pass from Wentzky) 3:10
Westwood Flora
First downs 19 19
Rushes-Yards 51-368 29-227
Passing yards 12 199
Att-Com-Int 9-2-1 21-15-2
Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-1
Penalties-yards 6-50 7-70
Punts-Avg 2-43.0 1-43.0
INDIVIDUAL
RUSHING
W-Antwan Nelson 26-186, Quentin McGill Jr. 19-163, Carrington Carter 3-13. F-Aiden Mosely
25-227, Roper Wentzky 2-0.
PASSING
W-Carrington Carter 2-9-1. F-Roper Wentzky 15-21-2.
RECEIVING
W-Miles Grant 1-7, Sean Goddard 1-12. F-Kendall Byrd 6-51, Aiden Mosely 4-72, Braxton
Murray 1-19, Tripp Van Vlake 1-7, Heath Moser 2-49.
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