Northwestern quarterback accounts for 6 touchdowns in cross-town rivalry game

It was third-and-10 on the Northwestern 20-yard line with just under six minutes left in the first half. Northwestern’s offense was in danger of stalling on a crucial drive against crosstown rival Rock Hill.

The Trojans had opened the game to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, but Rock Hill took advantage of some Northwestern mistakes to come to 21-14 with momentum starting to swing in the Bearcats favor.

Northwestern junior quarterback Finley Polk dropped back and rocketed a throw up the seam to sophomore wide receiver Kameron Vance. He had to adjust to the pass coming straight toward his face mask. He got his hands on the ball and initially bobbled it.

Vance secured the ball before he fell to the ground. A gain of 26 yards, a first down, and Northwestern was back in control.

Three plays later, the Trojans scored a touchdown on a 42-yard catch-and-run by senior wideout Jayden Burris to make it 28-14. Northwestern would score touchdowns on four of its next five offensive possessions to rattle off a 35-0 run en route to a 56-14 win over Rock Hill.

“We have a saying, ‘so what, now what,’” Northwestern head coach Page Wofford said. “There was a lot of ‘so what, now what’ in that first half. Then in the second half, we really settled down and really did a better job.”

Wofford said a major mental mistakes was crucial in the game.

Two penalties by the Northwestern’s defense helped extend Rock Hill’s offensive possessions on the Bearcats’ first touchdown drive, and a fumble lost by running back Turbo Richard resulted in another touchdown for the Bearcats.

But despite those early mistakes, the team held strong and played much cleaner, especially in the second half.

“I think a normal football player gets down and maybe makes even more mistakes,” Wofford said. “We try to train our guys that part of the mental game is overcoming those kind of mistakes and things aren’t going to go your way, and when they don’t, you pull on the steam. We talked about that before the game: you’re going to have things that don’t go your way. What do you do? Well, we stick together, we don’t point fingers, and we keep playing football.”

The Northwestern defense did a pretty good job keeping Rock Hill’s offense in check.

The defense had four interceptions: one each for seniors Justin Spencer, Jammar Perry and Jayden Woods and freshman Zymier Gordon-Miles.

Outside of the two Bearcat touchdown drives, the Trojans allowed only one drive to travel longer than 40 yards down the field -- and that lone drive ended with the Gordon-Miles interception.

Rock Hill showed promise

Rock Hill head coach Bubba Pittman was looking for an improved defensive performance from his team, and so far this season, he says his team is heading in the right direction.

“I thought the defense played better,” Pittman said. “I thought we reached (on tackles) a little bit early in the game. There were some times when we stopped our feet and got back into some old habits. We talked about it a lot at halftime, and I thought the kids played physical, downhill. But we got to continue to get better defensively. I’m proud of the progress that we’ve made, but we got to continue to work at it.”

One of the things that was a factor in the game was the gusty winds. With Tropical Storm Ophelia off the Carolina coast, the game saw winds gusting at around 30 miles per hour.

That possibly impacted Rock Hill’s air raid offense and quarterback Matthew Wilson, who completed less than half of his 34 passes, and over threw some open receivers.

However, Pittman downplayed that possibility, attributing those misses to the high energy of the contest. He said the bigger reason for the loss was the team’s missed opportunities in the first half.

“I think it was more adrenaline, I think it was more emotion,” he said. “I think Matt saw big plays in there, and he saw wide open receivers down the field and I think his emotion just put a little too much juice in it. That’s what I think. I don’t think it was the wind as much. Wind picked up pretty good in the second half, but our missed opportunities were in the first half.

“I thought we had a chance to score some touchdowns, and we overthrew some balls. Just the things that, when you’re playing a good football team, you got to complete those things. And we didn’t do that in the first half. Got ourselves behind 21-0. Proud of my kids, they fought their butts off, got it back 21-14, and we had a chance. We turned the ball over too many times tonight, and you’re not going to win a football game against a team like that.”

Despite the wind, Wilson still made spectacular plays with his arm and his legs. He passed for 169 yards and a 67-yard touchdown bomb to Z’Mori Thompson, while picking up 35 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Wilson often found himself buying time with his dynamic mobility.

The Shrine Bowl nominee even got high praise from Wofford for his efforts.

“What a heck of a player (Wilson) is,” he said. “He’s such a good kid and to have the career that he’s had at Rock Hill and then to be able to make the Shrine Bowl and represent South Carolina’s a big deal. And I told him that before the game.”

Northwestern offense stays hot

Friday night’s contest was the Trojans fourth-straight game scoring at least 49 points.

Of the 11 Trojan drives, eight of them ended in touchdowns.

Running back Turbo Richard had 184 yards and a touchdown on the ground, while wide receiver/quarterback Greer Hopkins had over 200 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns.

Polk completed 16 of his 24 passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns. But what was most surprising was his ability to run the football. He had 86 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries.

With pressure in the pocket, instead of forcing passes, he scrambled.

Friday contest was part of The Great American Rivalry Series sponsored by the U.S. Marines. Polk’s efforts saw him come away as the game’s MVP.

“We’re working on improving (with Polk),” Wofford said. “We’re working on him being better, we’re working on him making better decisions during the game and he did that tonight. We had a little conversation right in the middle of the third quarter. It wasn’t a nice conversation, but it was an honest conversation, and he loves being coached. He wants to be better. He wants to be great.

“He’s quietly having a great season. He’s not getting a lot of fanfare or awards, but he’s quietly having an excellent season, doing a great job, and we’re just so proud of him, watching him develop and play the way he is. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again, it is not easy to be the quarterback at Northwestern. You’re the face of the program, and he’s taken that burden and he’s run with it. It’s not easy playing for me either, so he’s got to deal with that every day. So that’s our thing, and we’re super happy for him and getting the MVP award for the game from the Marines. When the Marines said you did a good job, that’s a good job, so we’ll take it.”

Looking ahead

Northwestern heads into region play at 4-1 and will go on the road to play Lancaster. Rock Hill starts its region schedule at 2-3 and will have another home game next week against Spring Valley. Both games are on Sept. 29. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

This story was originally published September 22, 2023 at 10:45 PM.