Northwestern Prepares To Play Rival South Pointe After Huge 55-35 Win Over South Florence This Past Week
Northwestern senior CB/WR Jonathan (5-10, 160) in the Div II Class AAAAA Championship Game in 2024.
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Florence—The Northwestern High Trojan football team (3-0) played like the defending Div. II AAAAA champions that they are in a dominating 55-35 win over South Florence, the reigning AAAA champions in South Carolina on September, 5.
The top ranked Trojans are head coached by Page Wofford, a 1993 graduate of Stratford High School.
After the game, Coach Wofford told the HSSR, “We have five returning offensive linemen up-front and they help make things happen for us on offense, and that is where everything starts,” said Coach Wofford. “This group includes junior left tackle Beau Chumley, left guard senior Noah McCoy, senior center Chris Coleman, a Charleston Southern commitment, along with junior right tackle Elijah Propheter and senior right guard Nasir Hannah.”
Coach Wofford was asked: As defending champions, how important is it for the team to be focused on a repeat? “We take things one game at a time, and I do not even think about it,” he said. “To be honest, stats and things like that are for losers. We need to be focused on preparing to win one game at a time, and if we do that, we will be successful. If we worry now about winning the last game of the season, we might have a hard time winning the next game we play.”
Coach Wofford is very high on junior quarterback Xavier Means who had an outstanding game against South Florence. “He is as good a quarterback as we’ve had at Northwestern,” said Coach Wofford. “Means is a true dual threat guy. It started with Will Mattison, a former Mr. Football, and then Finley Polk, and now we have Means.
“Looking back, we had Mason Rudolph, and I do not care what anyone says, he has been the most successful quarterback in the state that went on to play in the NFL,” said Coach Wofford.
This week, perhaps the biggest game in the state pits the Trojans against city rival South Pointe. “This game is going to be huge and it will be all over local media and we expect 10,000 fans at the game,” said Coach Wofford. “We expect a big crowd and we hope to put on a good show against a quality opponent.”
In the huge road win, Means (6-0, 170), a superior dual-threat quarterback. rushed 17 times for 147 yards and two rushing touchdowns against the Bruins. Through the air, Means completed 24-of-30 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior Trojan running back Nigel Smith added 104 yards rushing on 11 carries and a touchdown while running back teammate Quay Mobley rushed for 69 yards on 13 carries. Senior receiver Kameron Vance (5-8,170) is committed to Lafayette. He led Trojan receivers with 13 catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns in the game. One of his touchdowns was an exciting 99-yard kick-off return in the second half. Other top receivers for NW included Payton Vinning who caught four passes for 43 yards, Jonathan Spurgeon with three catches for 35 yards, and Evan Harrison with two catches for 23 yards including a touchdown.
Northwestern place kicker Alex Brandt got the Trojans on the board in the first quarter on a 23-yard filed goal and he closed out the game with a 23-yard field goal in the waning seconds of the game. He also made all his PAT attempts.
On defense NW was led by Jeremian Cannon with seven tackles while Kamerin McFaddin and Texas A&M DB commitment Tamario Watkins had six tackles each.
For the game NW produced 319 rushing yards on 41 carries and 250 passing yards for a total offensive out-put of 569 yards.
South Florence was led in their Homecoming game by senior quarterback Messiah Jackson who completed 8-of-15 passes for 210 yards and two TD’s. Jackson added 24 rushing yards on 10 carries with two rushing touchdowns. Running back Cameron Jones led the Bruin rushing attack with 115 yards on 11 carries and two TD’s. RB Gabe McLaughlin added 50 yards on 10 carries.
SF was led in receptions by Jay’Aun Perkins with 3 catches for 153 yards and two touchdowns, one for 80 yards. Semaj Parker and Malik Robinson added two receptions.
After the Homecoming loss, SF head coach Drew Marlowe shared his feelings. “In the second half we just could not stop them and they ran the ball down our throats,” said Coach Marlowe. “They did to us what we typically do to other people.
“When you play against a talented team like Northwestern, I think the most important thing is to never wait to have failure,” said Coach Marlowe. “We certainly failed tonight and got exposed in some areas. If we learned anything from last year, we know that when we have issues we just have to refocus and go to work on correcting mistakes.
“Our team battled, and we never gave up but we just have to go back and work hard at correcting mistakes on Monday,” said Coach Marlowe. “We had a great crowd tonight for homecoming and I hate it that we only have three home games this season. I hate that we got beat in this way at home but hopefully our kids will respond in the right way and we’ll come back and have a good week of practice and move forward with positive outcomes.”
