Westside rallies in final minutes to beat South Florence 34-32 for AAAA football state title

           Columbia — South Florence High School took advantage of early Westside mistakes to take a 20-7 lead before the first quarter was in the books in the AAAA football state championship game at South Carolina State University's Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

           Late in the game though, a big South Florence mistake, a Westside defensive stop and a clutch drive in the closing seconds vaulted the Rams to a 34-32 victory and their first state championship since 1969, when Westside was a AAA school.

           "Nothing shakes our guys, man," Rams first-year head coach Brian Lane said. "We just keep battling back, battling back. I'm proud of these guys right here, how hard they played, proud of our defense. It's fitting that we had to get a defensive stop and a score to win the ballgame. I'm proud of our guys and what they did all year."

           Westside's victory snapped South Florence's 29-game winning streak that began with the 2022 season opener. The Bruins, led by now South Carolina freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers, won the AAAA state championship with a 15-0 record. 

           South Florence (14-1) appeared to be closing out its second straight title until it made a costly mistake on fourth down and nine yards to go  at its 27-yard line in the fourth quarter. 

           Up 32-20, the Bruins took a timeout, then the punting unit rushed the field and quickly set for the snap. In the hurry to get the punt off, the long snapper launched the ball straight into one of the up men and the ball fell to the turf. Westside's Josh Williams pounced on the loose ball at the 17

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           In the eight plays that followed, the Rams got a fourth-down conversion and quarterback Cutter Woods threw his first touchdown pass of the afternoon, a 14-yard strike to Williams.

           The Bruins, leading 32-27, went straight back to its clock-draining rushing attack when they got the ball back. However,, Westside stopped the drive at midfield, forcing a South Florence punt with 2:44 left in the game. 

           Starting from their own 22, Woods and the Rams worked down the field on 12 plays, making two fourth-down conversions in the final minute. On fourth and 2 at the South Florence 17, Woods connected with wide receiver Jimmar Boston on a cross pattern around the 10-yard line. Boston finished the play in the end zone to give the Rams a 34-32 lead with 15 seconds left. 

           "It was amazing," Boston said about his final moment in the state championship. "Everyone had doubts about our defense, our offense not being as good as anybody else or whatever, so it felt real good just to prove everybody wrong."

           South Florence, which had completed just two passes on the afternoon to go with its 317 rushing yards, had no chance to stage a comeback. 

           Woods finished the afternoon passing 17-for-27 for 248 yards and two touchdowns to one interception. Boston had six catches for 95 yards.

           Zion Gilbert had 21 carries for 207 yards and a score to lead South Florence.

           The loss was hard for Bruins head coach Drew Marlowe, who bids farewell to seniors who were freshmen when he took over the program in 2020. 

           "There was Covid, and I had no idea what I was doing," an emotional Marlowe began. "They bought in and believed what we were selling. They meant a lot to me, to this community, and to this football program and I'm so proud of them."

           Westside ignited the game with Woods' 58-yard pass to Boston on the first play from scrimmage. Two plays later Dee Robertson burst in from one yard out for the first score 51 seconds into the game.

           South Florence responded in kind with a 6-play, 85-yard drive that quarterback Sy'Ree Livingston capped with a 5-yard touchdown run. 

           Two Rams turnovers, a lost fumble on a kickoff and an interception, led to two more Bruins touchdowns. GIlbert's 7-yard touchdown run and Livingston's 5-yard rushing TD made it 20-7 by the 5:09 mark of the first quarter. 

           Westside may have made mistakes, but the team was not going to fade in the final game of the year, Lane said.

           "When you get a team like that that runs the football, we gave them two possessions at the beginning," he said. "We just had to fight back, and it took us the whole game. I've been telling them the whole year that this isn't going to be no Disney ending all year, and then we get to the state championship and we get a Disney ending."

           Westside rallied in the second quarter with a 70-yard Sharode Richardson touchdown to cut South Florence's lead to 20-14, but the Bruins came back with a 19-yard Raleigh Jett TD run to make it 26-14.

           Woods' 3-yard TD run with 20 seconds left in the first half cut that lead to 26-20. That score gave a needed boost to the Rams, going into the locker room trailing the defending champions by one possession.

           "We've got so much confidence in Coach Lane, I think the whole team felt that," Woods said. "He brings to us a whole different type of energy, a whole different type of culture. We just knew that if we gave it our all, the Lord's going to determine it.'

           The Bruins opened the second half with a 13-play, 74 yard scoring drive that took 6:39 off the clock. Livingston's 4-yard TD run made it 32-20. 

           It seemed with that drive that South Florence was content to drain the clock, but Westside had other plans, plans that it cooked up in a season full of proving itself.

           "I've said it before, it's proof," Lane said. "I've been talking all year to my guys, that you have to prove it. Nobody's going to believe in you, it don't matter. They'll probably have us ranked sixth in the state right now after we won it.  But it's proof. We showed our proof, and that's what it is right here, a state championship."

Westside 20 6 6 0 – 32

South Florence 7 13 0 14 – 34

First Quarter

W - Dee Robertson 1 run (Braydn Barnette kick) 11:09

S - Sy'Ree Livingston 5 run (Evan Holland kick) 8:11

S - Zion Gilbert 7 run (Holland kick) 5:34

S - Livingston 5 run (kick failed) 5:09

Second Quarter

W - Sharode Richardson 70 run (Barnette kick) 10:39

S - Raleigh Jett 19 run (run failed) 3:30

W - Cutter Woods 3 run (kick failed) :20

Third Quarter

S -Livingston 4 run (run failed) 5:21

Fourth Quarter

W - Josh Williams 14 pass from Cutter Woods (Barnette kick) 9:48

W - Jimmar Boston 17 pass from Woods (Barnette kick) :15

WHS SF

First downs 18 12

Rushes-Yards 33-166 47-317-0

Passing yards 248 4

Att-Com-Int 28-18-1 4-2-0

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-2

Penalties-yards 3-20 8-68

Punts-Avg 1-44.0 2-41.0

INDIVIDUAL

RUSHING

W-Sharode Richardson 9-86, DeMarco Evans 6-35, Dee Robertson 4-26, Cutter Woods 14-19. S-Zion Gilbert 21-207, Sy'Ree Livingston 17-82, Raleigh Jett 3-24, Messiah Jackson 2-9, Juan Fargas 2-6, TM Team 2-11.

PASSING

W-Cutter Woods 17-27-1, DeMarco Evans 1-1-0. S-Messiah Jackson 2-4-0.

RECEIVING

W-Jimmar Boston 6-95, Josh Williams 6-92, Jay McClintock 2-23, Dee Robertson 1-22, Sharode Richardson 2-9, DeMarco Evans 1-7. S-Noah Moore 1-3, Juan Fargas 1-1.