‘Our guys kept fighting.’ Northwestern battled to the very end in loss to Providence Day

It’s a short phrase yet the message carries weight: “So what, now what?”

You made mistakes on the field: So what?

You made a terrific play on the field: Now what?

It’s the mantra the Northwestern Trojans have lived by since the offseason. One that head coach Page Wofford said would instill grit in his team. The mantra came after Northwestern lost to South Florence last fall in the state championship game.

Saturday night Northwestern was down 35-14 to Providence Day with less than two minutes in the third quarter of the inaugural Keep Pounding High School Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

Maybe that’s why there wasn’t an ounce of quit in the Trojans.

After the game, which Providence Day won 42-35, Wofford said his guys were never going to quit, regardless of the score.

“Our guys don’t know it any other way,” Wofford said. “They did what they were expected to do. We don’t talk about getting down a lot, but we talked about our little mantra: ‘So what, now what?’”.

“So you’re down, now what are you going to do. You can fight or you can not fight. Our guys kept fighting and that’s good to see, and I’m proud of them for that. It’s what we want to do in our program, and we’re there to coach all the way.”

Northwestern outscored Providence Day 21-7 from the end of the third quarter until the end of the game.

Junior quarterback Finley Polk threw three of his four touchdown passes in that stretch, the first of which went through the hands of a leaping Jaylen Burris and was captured by Jayden Nichols who was waiting behind him. Nichols darted into the end zone to make the score 35-21.

Polk connected with Burris on a touchdown pass with just over four minutes left to make the score 42-28. The Trojans then recovered the subsequent onside kick and marched down the field to score on another Finley Polk touchdown pass, this one to sophomore Kameron Vance to make it 42-35 with 41 seconds left.

But with under a minute to go, Providence Day recovered the onside kick, and got the first down needed to salt away the game.

Northwestern had five offensive possessions after falling behind 35-14 with 8:20 left in the third quarter. The three aforementioned scores, a three-and-out and a turnover -- the team’s third of the game.

Wofford pointed to mistakes made by the Trojans.

Along with interceptions, the team had a turnover-on-downs after an illegal touching penalty on an otherwise first-down conversion, a missed field goal to open the second half, and some blown defensive coverages that left Providence Day wide receivers open for touchdowns.

“We just made too many mistakes against a great football team,” Wofford said. “You can’t turn the ball over three times ... ”

But the Trojans stayed true to their mantra: So what, now what?

They have some positives to take from Saturday night’s performance.

Their defensive front generated a lot of pressure, leading to several sacks and forcing Providence Day to face many third-and-long situations. And Northwestern’s physicality seemed to wear down the Chargers. There were hydration breaks, and a good number of Providenc Day players went down with cramps.

Providence Day worked hard to contain Trojans senior running back Turbo Richard. Polk shrugged off three interceptions to complete 26 of his 41 passes for 410 yards and four touchdowns.

Now what?

Wofford will review the game tape, which will give him insight on how to improve his team moving forward.

“It’s going to hurt to watch this film, and I’m sure we’ll see chance after chance that just a block here and a play here and a hand here, watching some of the catches those guys made over there with people draped all over them. It was pretty good,” Wofford said.

“They did a good job, but I’m sure there’s a lot more positives. You’re never as bad as you think you are; you’re never as good as you think you are either. So we’ve got some work cut out for us, and we’ll be looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow and getting on the field on Monday.”

Northwestern (0-1) will return home to District 3 Stadium for a game against the Clover Blue Eagles. The game is 7:30 Friday.

This story was originally published August 20, 2023 at 8:26 AM.