A.C. Flora Tops Westwood in Season Opener
AC Flora Captains for Game 1 Against Westwood.
By WORTHY EVANS
Contributing Writer
Columbia - First-game trials and mistakes showed at Memorial Stadium Thursday night.
In a game that included a 30-minute lightning delay at intermission, the Westwood football team struggled to put any offense at all together in the first half.
While A.C. Flora closed out a 30-19 victory over the Redhawks, Falcons head coach Ken Floyd was far from happy about what he saw.
“I didn’t think we did well at all offensively. We can’t sustain drives right now and that’s been a hallmark of our offenses through the years,” Floyd said. “I thought Roper (Wentzky) was off tonight. The offensive line is physically dominating but they just killed themselves with (false start) penalties and discipline. We were just getting in our own way. We shot ourselves in the foot all night long and it’s really frustrating.”
Tops on his mind were some unsportsmanlike calls—which caused one A.C. Flora player to be ejected in the first half—as well as mistakes that disrupted the offensive flow of the game.
Those errors ate into the progress that the offense showed. Falcons quarterback Roper Wentzky was 17-for-28 in passing for 229 yards and three touchdowns. Blake Betette had a 13-yard touchdown run and Grant Hill made a 27-yard field goal.
After the game, Floyd lit into the team about what he saw was a lack of senior leadership. Mistakes on the field, such as discipline-type errors like false starts, pale in comparison to leaders on the team not communicating, Floyd said.
“I hope we make some big strides, or else we’re going to be embarrassed next week,” he said about his team’s Week One-Week Two improvement.
First year Westwood head coach Stephen Burris, who led 1A Lamar to back-to-back region titles and long playoff runs in 2023 and 2024, inherits a team that is full of experienced players that showed that in spite of the loss, they were capable of listening and getting better.
Burris noted that mistakes aside, the Falcons came to play and were difficult for his team to handle.
“A.C. Flora is a very good football team. I don’t think that can be overstated,” Burris said. “They’re very big, very physical, and their skill guys are as good as I’ve seen in a long time. We knew we had our work cut out for us missing two scrimmages last week, and that lightning delay is just kind of what we’ve been dealing with the last couple of weeks.”
Beyond the first-game issues of false starts and minor unsportsmanlike calls, A.C. Flora maintained ball control through the first quarter. The Falcons got on the scoreboard with Betette’s touchdown run at the 2:44 mark of the first.
The first quarter expired as the Falcons were driving, and Hill closed out that drive with a 37-yard field goal one minute into the second quarter to put Flora up 9-0.
Less than four minutes later the Falcons drove into scoring position again and this time came up with Wentzky’s 36-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Scott to go up 16-0.
Westwood, which had ran just 12 plays and gained just eight net yards by the fifth minute of the second quarter, finally caught a break.
Redhawks kick returner Angelo Rios returned a kickoff to the Falcons 47-yard line. On that series running back Jovan Howard broke free for a 25-yard gain for the team’s first first down of the game. Four plays later, on fourth and 4 at the Flora 14-yard line, Carter fired a pass to Rios in the left corner of the end zone at the 4:58 mark for the team’s only score of the half.
Up 16-6, Flora took over at midfield after Westwood’s score and drove down the field quickly. Wentzky’s second TD pass of the game went to Kendall Byrd for a 17-yard score with 3:41 left in the first half.
Wentzky put the Falcons up 30-6 with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Byrd late in the third quarter.
After that score Westwood took over near midfield. A few plays later Rios bounced out of a pileup and raced 36 yards for the end zone to cut the Falcons’ lead to 30-12.
A.C. Flora kept control of the ball for most of the fourth quarter, but Hill missed a 25-yard field goal attempt with 5:08 left.
The Redhawks gave up the football on an interception and A.C. Flora drove to the 32-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
Westwood then drove 68 yards in the final minute and a half to score with an 11-yard Carter-to-Quentin McGill touchdown pass with 0.2 seconds left.
“Our kids hung in there and kept competing, and that’s what I wanted to see,” Burris said. “I told them at halftime, we’re going to learn a lot about our football team in the second half. They could have scored about four more touchdowns on us, but we scored two and we got some things we can build on. We kept throwing punches so we’ll continue to get better.”
A.C. Flora plays host to Chapin, which fell 30-0 to Catawba Ridge Friday.
Westwood travels to Sumter to take on Lakewood Friday.
Westwood 0 6 6 7 – 19
A.C. Flora 6 17 7 0 – 30
First Quarter
F - Blake Betette 13 run (kick failed) 2:44
Second Quarter
F - Grant Hill 37 field goal. 11:21
F - Charlie Scott 36 pass from Wentzky (Hill kick) 7:27
W - Angelo Rios 14 pass from Carrington Carter (kick failed) 4:58
F - Kendall Byrd 17 pass from Wentzky (Hill kick) 3:41
Third Quarter
F - Byrd 28 pass from Wentzky (Hill kick) 2:56
W - Rios 36 run (kick failed) 1:07
Fourth Quarter
W - Quentin McGill 11 pass from Carter (Muhsin Yakubu kick) :0.2
W F
First downs. 12 21
Rushes-yds 22-109 32-134
Passing yds 183 229
Att-Com-Int 29-16-1 28-17-1
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0
Penalties-yds. 7-62 11-89
Punts-avg 3-30.3. 2-38.5
Individual Statistics
RUSHING
W - Angelo Rios 8-49, Jovan Howard 7-24, Carrington Carter 5-(-5), Jayden Boyd 1-6, Quentin McGill 1-25. F - Jerquan Williams 8-48, Blake Betette 7-35, Timothy Koutrakos 6-25, Trayvon Gary 6-28, Roper Wentzky 5-(-8), Charlie Scott 1-9.
PASSING
W - Carrington Carter 16-28-1, Elye Owens 1-0-0. F - Roper Wentzky 17-28-1.
RECEIVING
W - Quentin McGill 5-53, Kham Cunningham 4-37, Angelo Rios 3-43, Cohen Scott 1-21, Sheldon Bradley 1-(-2), Jovan Howard 1-19, C.J. Bennett 1-12. F - Josh Davis 6-73. Kendall Byrd 4-49, Blake Betette 3-30, Charlie Scott 2-67, Trayvon Gary 1-(-1), Azal Banag 1-12, Riggs Scott 1-11.
