Northwestern win shows their momentum is building. Now comes winner-takes-region game

Northwestern has been on a dominant stretch since its season-opening loss to Providence Day in August at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. And Friday night’s 56-14 win over York was another step forward for the Trojans.

The game marks seven-in-a-row for Northwestern. And they’ve outscored opponents by a combined 383-84.

Northwestern scored touchdowns on all of it’s first four offensive possessions en route to a 42-0 halftime lead.

The other two touchdowns came on a 42-yard fumble recovery return by Jayden Woods and a 35-yard punt block return by Jayce Joseph. These plays ended consecutive York drives in the second quarter.

The defense held York to 85 yards of offense in the first half.

“This was a total team victory,” Northwestern head coach Page Wofford said. “If we had selfish players, we’d have guys that were upset because offensively we didn’t get that many plays ... we have five plays in the second quarter. But I don’t believe we have selfish guys; I think we’re fighting selfishness every day in our program, and we’re doing a good job of it.”

Finley Polk finished the game completing seven of his nine passes for 203 yards and a touchdown, while Turbo Richard picked up 148 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

Both players sat in the second half due to the huge lead and with a running clock keeping things moving.

Wofford said he and his team will always take a win, but they cannot become too prideful if they want to achieve the ultimate goal -- a state championship.

“We can’t become complacent,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to correct errors. The games like this that we’ve played the last couple weeks, where we kind of jumped on teams early, only come from preparation, practice and confidence. It’s the confidence of knowing that you’re going to do the right thing and be in the right place and confidence in the coaching that you’re getting.”

York still in a good spot in the region

Friday night’s loss to Northwestern was a blow for a York team that was riding a four-game winning streak of its own.

The Cougars couldn’t find a way to consistently run the ball, and that allowed Northwestern to keep an eye on a sneakily explosive York passing attack.

“We didn’t play well,” York head coach Dean Boyd said. “Northwestern had a lot to do with that. That is a really good football team. They’re well coached, they’ve got a lot of athletes, they do a great job.

“And we knew going in it was going to be an uphill task. We had to play near perfect, and they maybe had to not play their perfect game. Well, the opposite happened. They played near perfect, and we played poorly early and quick, and they took advantage of it.”

York improved in the second half.

The Cougars put together two lengthy touchdown drives -- a 1-yard sneak by Ayden Davis and a 14-yard touchdown pass from Tashon Freeman to Jaxon Graham were the two scores. York managed to create big plays in the air, on the ground and on special teams.

The loss was only York’s first region loss, and the team still has a chance to clinch the region crown.

“We told them at halftime, ‘look, the reality is we’re not going to win this game,’” he said. “It’s 42-0. You’re not going to win this game. But we can win the second half. We can start preparing ourselves for Lancaster in the next week.

“I feel like we did that, and they played much better. But in reality, we got a long ways to go. We’re not close to where (Northwestern) is right now. And if we want to be like that, we got a lot of work to do still.”

Running back Javarus Guthrie had 86 rushing yards on 15 carries, while wide receiver Zadarius Carter caught 7 passes for 84 yards.

Northwestern’s run continues

Northwestern’s win means they need a win next week against South Pointe to claim their fourth-consecutive region championship.

It’s a testament to the quick turnaround Wofford has had with the Trojans, who went 2-8 in his first year at Northwestern back in 2019.

“We got to win Friday,” Wofford said. “We’re playing a really good South Pointe team, and we’ve got to get better with deficits we have to improve on. When you look back, you have depression, and when you look forward, you have anxiety. So I’m just trying to win today. Today, we won today, and we’ve got 24 hours to enjoy it.”

Looking ahead

Northwestern (7-1, 3-0) will face South Pointe in a winner-takes-region game, while York (6-2, 2-1) will look to keep its region championship hopes alive against Lancaster.

Both games kickoff on Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m.

This story was originally published October 14, 2023 at 9:01 AM.