Northwestern scores last-second TD, Chester beats York in McDonald’s Kick-Off scrimmages

Northwestern got a last-minute touchdown drive to steal a win away from J.L. Mann, while Chester used a strong rushing attack to beat York at the McDonald’s Kick-Off Classic hosted at Union County Stadium on Friday night.

Northwestern 17, J.L. Mann 14

Quarterback Finley Polk connected with wide receiver Jayden Nichols on a 13-yard touchdown pass with less than a second left to beat J.L. Mann 17-14 in their scrimmage Friday afternoon.

Northwestern started the game well, with Trojans defensive back Tamarion Watkins returning an interception 30 yards for a touchdown on the third play of the scrimmage.

However, not much went Northwestern’s way offensively.

The Trojans committed two turnovers in their first four plays as the offense gained just 24 yards and one first down on its opening four drives.

“We can’t have three turnovers in a game,” head coach Page Wofford said. “... We went games (in a row) last year without a turnover. To have three in one half—fortunately, it was in a scrimmage.”

Defensively, the Trojans had a solid showing, especially up front.

Along with the interception, Northwestern’s defensive recovered a fumble and posted five tackles for loss and four sacks, keeping J.L. Mann’s offense in check for most of the scrimmage.

“The film will show it,” Wofford said. “They did a good job tonight putting pressure on the quarterback and stopping the run and making plays all over the field.”

J.L. Mann drove 81 yards in under a minute to take a 14-10 lead with 46 seconds left in the game.

That’s when Northwestern’s offense kicked into gear. Working with one timeout, Polk connected on three straight passes of 23, 31 and 13 yards to put the Trojans in the red zone with under 15 seconds left.

After an attempt on a fade was broken up on first down, Polk sat patiently in the pocket and rocketed a pass to Nichols cutting in towards the back of the end zone for a touchdown with 0.9 seconds left.

“That last throw and catch there was pretty nice to see,” Wofford said. “We put that play in day one, so to see it come to fruition (in a big spot), and for Finley to read it and Jayden to catch it, it’s a pretty nice deal there.”

Northwestern’s next scrimmage is set forTuesday at Spartanburg.

Chester 22, York 7

Chester ran for three touchdowns, two by quarterback Trooper Floyd, in beating York.

The Cyclones played exactly how they wanted to: run the ball, run the ball some more, and throw it when necessary. They picked up 168 yards on the ground in the half-long scrimmage.

“We want to make sure we can do that very early in the season,” head coach Victor Floyd said. “... We just got to get more consistent, cut out some of the mistakes, just got to get a little better.”

Chester was also able to make its mark on the defensive end as well. Aside from York’s lone touchdown drive, the Cyclones held York to just 14 yards of total offense, recording four tackles for loss in the process.

“We had some kids make some plays,” Floyd said. “If we can just consistently get better in that area, hopefully, we’ll be right by (the start of region play).”

For York, it was the opening scrimmage of the season, and head coach Dean Boyd said that’s exactly how his team looked.

He saw some things for his team to work on, and that work will start very soon.

“We’ve got a long ways to go, but we’re going to practice first thing (Saturday) morning, and we got to try to get some things worked out,” Boyd said.

York’s lone touchdown drive came when freshman backup quarterback Ryan Brochu entered the game for his lone drive, completing all four of his passes for 75 yards including a 21-yard touchdown strike to Johnathan Tobias.

There isn’t a quarterback battle for the Cougars; Boyd simply attributed to receivers catching the passes from Brochu and not catching them from starter Tayshon Freeman.

However, Boyd saw some things from certain players that he believes his team can build on.

“Tayshon is still our guy, but Ryan is going to have to play some,” Boyd said. “We’ve got to have him ready to go at all times; we do feel like he’s a good talent. I thought Ziggy Byers ran the ball hard at times tonight. I thought Johnathan Tobias played well. Even though he didn’t have a big catch tonight, I thought Jay McCoy played well, and then Junior Duncan made a couple of catches out there.”

Chester’s next scrimmage will be at Camden, while York will host Lewisville. Both are scheduled for Tuesday.