Northwestern continues dominant SC high school football playoff run, topples Westside
Running backs Turbo Richard and Zilon Arnold combined for more than 200 yards and six touchdowns on the ground as the Northwestern Trojans beat the Westside Rams, 59-21, in the quarterfinals of the 4A state playoffs Friday night.
It was business as usual for the Trojans, who led by at least 42 points at halftime for the third consecutive game, meaning the second half had a running clock.
The offense scored a touchdown on each of its seven drives in the first half, while the defense allowed just one touchdown drive in the first half, forcing three punts, two interceptions and two turnovers-on-downs.
“The defensive staff was really coming up with some good game plans this week,” head coach Page Wofford said. “When they told me what they wanted to do, I said I trust them implicitly now. ... They get in the lab in there and put their heads together and figure out what we can do and who we have available and go at it.”
Richard had 179 yards on the ground, giving him 1,887 for the season to set a new Northwestern school record, surpassing the old mark held by Jeff Burris.
“It means a lot, but I couldn’t do it without my coaches,” Richard said. “Coach Walker and Coach Stew. And my O-line. You know, if they’re not blocking, I can’t get it. But they were blocking and doing all their assignments, and I was able to achieve that goal.”
Sophomore quarterback Finley Polk threw for 192 yards and two touchdowns for the Trojans.
Westside’s first half was about as rough as it’s been all season.
“We just ran into a very good team,” Westside head coach Scott Earley said. “We had to work so hard to get here, and along the way, we had so many injuries, and we just got beat up getting here. You get here and you ain’t got much left to play, and we knew we had to get off to a good start to keep it competitive, and we didn’t.”
The second half went much better for the Rams, who scored touchdowns on both of their second-half drives. Earley said their performance toward of the end of the game was more about heart than anything else.
“We just talked about at halftime, ‘How do you want to leave your legacy?’ ” Earley said. “We knew that we weren’t ready when we got here. We didn’t get off to a good start. We turned the ball over. We’ve done stuff we never did all year. But in the second half, we just wanted to come out and play prideful and play football. And I was proud of them for doing that because that was difficult to do in the situation we were in.”
Quarterback Cutter Woods threw for 228 yards and three touchdowns, while receivers Josh Williams and Jimmar Boston combined for 206 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
Northwestern moves on to the semifinals of the 4A state playoffs. The Trojans will travel to Greenville to face the top-seeded Greenville Red Raiders on Friday, Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
This story was originally published November 18, 2022 at 11:19 PM.