West Florence capitalizes on 5 Blythewood turnovers for 21-7 victory

West Florence capitalizes on 5 Blythewood turnovers for 21-7 victory

By WORTHY EVANS

When opportunity knocked, the West Florence football team answered at Blythewood Friday night.

The Knights jumped on four Bengals turnovers in the first half and held on to beat Blythewood 21-7.

West Florence (3-4, 2-1) had just 98 net rushing yards and 63 passing yards on the night, and punted the football 10 times in the game. Whenever Blythewood got the ball, the Knights’ pass rush broke up many plays and led to three interceptions and a fumble recovery in the first half, and a fourth pick in the second half.

“Offensively it was definitely not what we wanted it to be. It was a grind there,” first-year head coach Chad Wilkes said “we were trying to run out the clock and tried to play some complimentary football, and the defense did a fantastic job. The coaches did an unbelievable job preparing the team. Everything they (Blythewood) did our kids saw in practice, and the kids went out there and made a ton of plays. They played loose, they played free, they played fast, and it was really fun to watch.”

With 112 yards on the night, Tristan Collins had almost as many yards on 25 carries than the team’s total offense. The Bengals had 11 tackles for loss, including a sack that cost the Knights 17 yards.

The first half stood out as ugly, considering both offenses had issues with sustaining drives. Blythewood and West Florence had 16 possessions between them in the first half, but only five first downs. 

The Bengals had four punts and four turnovers before ending their ninth possession of the half at intermission. 

West Florence turned the ball over on downs once and punted five times. On one possession that came from a lost fumble, Collins finally squirted past the line of scrimmage and bolted 46 yards for a touchdown with 1:19 to go in the first quarter.

Midway through the second quarter linebacker Romello Patterson intercepted a James Veasey pass and returned it 55 yards to put the Knights up 14-0, a score that would hold by the half.

“Two different sides of a coin,” Blythewood head coach James Martin said about the game. “You have to take care of the football, and we didn’t do it in the first half. It let to some points and we couldn’t really recover.”

Blythewood played cleaner football in the second half, but both offenses continued to struggle. West Florence punted five more times, and the Bengals turned the ball over on downs twice, punted twice, and threw another interception.

Two second half plays stood out among the ineffectiveness on offense.

For the Knights, Chase Anderson connected with Corey Patterson for a 54-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

For the Bengals, backup quarterback Caedmon Watson’s 50-yard pass to Noah Nelson enabled Watson to run the ball into the end zone with 7:15 left in the game to avoid the shutout.

After that score Blythewood drove to the Knights 16-yard line, but went backwards soon afterward turned the ball over on downs at the 35-yard line with 56 seconds on the clock. Blythewood’s glimmer of hope for a passing attack came too little and too late.

“We’ve got to pick ourselves up and get back to the drawing board and do what we’ve been talking about all season,” Martin said. “We’ve got to continue to execute the plan and not make mistakes. That’s what’s hurting us. You do that too many times and the ball’s not going to go in your favor.”

Blythewood plays host to Sumter (6-1, 3-0).

West Florence, which lost to Sumter Oct. 3, plays host to Ridge View (5-2, 3-0) Friday.

“Ridge View’s a fantastic team and that’s going to be a great challenge,” Wilkes said. “We’re going to continue to preach execution and I think we can play better against Ridge View than we did tonight. We’ve got to finish the region slate strong if we’re expecting to be a great team, and we’ve got to win great games like this to be a great team.”

West Florence 7         7         7          0         –         21

Blythewood     0         0         0         7         –         7

First Quarter

W - Tristan Collins 46 run (20 kick) 1:19

Second Quarter

W –Romello Patterson 55 interception return (Thomas Hamm 20 kick) 5:14

Third Quarter

W -Corey Patterson 54 pass from Chase Anderson (Hamm kick) 5:38 

Fourth Quarter

B - Caedmon Watson 4 run (Ashton Davis kick) 7:15

                      WF                 BHS

First downs           9                     12

Rushes-yds      41-98              31-107

Passing yds         63                   206

Att-Com-Int     9-2-0            32-14-4

Fumbles-lost      1-0                  3-1

Penalties-yds   4-35                10-87

Punts-avg        10-31.4             5-40.1

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING

W - Tristan Collins 25-112, Jeremiah Bryant 11-7, Chase Anderson 3-(-19), Cooper Creagh 1-1, Melo Patterson 1-(-3).

B - Landyn Strong 11-50, Caedmon Watson 8-39, James Veasey 4-6, Tay’Shawn Johnson 1-3, Ashton Davis 1-(-17).

PASSING 

W - Chase Anderson 3-7-0, Tristan Collins 0-1-0.

B - Caedmon Watson 7-17-1, James Veasey 6-15-3.

RECEIVING

W - Cooper Creagh 2-9, Corey Patterson 1-54.

B - Tay’Shawn Johnson 4-55, Landyn Strong 4-8, Ben Hendrix 3-86, Noah Nelson 1-50, Johnny Young 1-3, Chance Johnson 1-2.