Chester is unrelenting, but Northwestern proves too tough in 3rd straight win
Friday night in Chester wasn’t defined by a single moment — say a touchdown flipping the game’s script, or a stop on defense putting one team away for good.
Friday night in Chester, instead, was defined by an endless, awe-inspiring, relentless fight — one that forced the formidable 5A Northwestern Trojans to play every second of every down against the 3A Chester Cyclones.
And the Trojans did.
They have their third straight win to show for it.
“We knew they were going to keep coming,” Northwestern head coach Page Wofford told The Herald after his team’s 42-26 win on Friday night on the road. “That’s what they’re taught. That’s what they do. And that’s why it’s good to play them — they’re going to keep coming, and we have to be able to keep coming back and keep coming back, which we did.”
How tough was Chester?
You could see it everywhere.
You could see it in Zan Dunham, a three-star prospect and four-year starter at quarterback who moonlights as a linebacker and long-snapper. He virtually never came off the field Friday night. He was the hardest hitter and appeared to take the most hits himself — accumulating 201 yards and a touchdown rushing and 150 yards and a touchdown passing.
You could see it in running back Shydem McCullough, who ran it 11 times for 90 yards and a touchdown.
You could even see it in how the team responded to misfortune throughout the game:
When Northwestern scored its first touchdown, on a wide receiver screen from Will Mattison that Gerrell Watkins caught and wiggled his way free for 64 yards along the sideline, Chester forced two big stops before responding with a score of its own — a 28-yard touchdown run by McCullough. (A failed point after attempt made it 7-6.)
Chester was tested so many other times, too — like when Northwestern running back Qua Howard scored from four yards out (14-6), or when Watkins scored again from 21 yards out (21-6), or when a Chester field goal was blocked as the halftime buzzer buzzed, or when Northwestern’s Ashton Latta took an interception to the endzone on Chester’s first drive of the first possession of the second half to make it 28-6.
Chester didn’t quit through it all.
In fact, in a strange way, Chester somehow appeared to get stronger throughout the game: At 28-6, Chester scored via an Antonio Hopkins 22-yard rushing touchdown to make it 28-12. Then, after a Will Mattison rushing touchdown, Chester answered again, making it 35-19 early in the fourth quarter.
And when Mattison scored with his legs again, to make it 42-19? Chester answered once more with a Dunham rush from 1-yard out with five minutes left in the game.
“Chester brought a lot to the table,” said Northwestern junior offensive lineman Jordan Knox, someone always at the center of the game’s physicality. “They were very tough. We definitely had to bring all we had.”
Cyclone coach Victor Floyd said he was proud of his team’s relentlessness Friday night.
“I expected that,” he told reporters postgame. “I expected us to battle. We work too hard to lay down. We just gotta cut down on the mistakes. When you work hard, you work too hard to just give up. That’s kind of how the kids look at it. And they’re going to fight till there are zeros on the clock. I’m proud of the effort. Proud of the effort for sure.”
4 notes in Northwestern’s win
▪ Chester seemed to win every statistical category other than points on Friday: The Cyclones notched 536 yards of total offense to Northwestern’s 384. They also had 386 total rushing yards and dominated time of possession (28:49 vs. 19:11).
▪ Northwestern stats leaders: Running back Qua Howard ran for 52 yards and one touchdown; quarterback Will Mattison went 19-24 with one interception for 301 yards and two touchdowns passing (not including his two yards rushing); Gerrell Watkins caught five passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns; and Elijah Caldwell caught eight passes for 119 yards.
▪ Chester stat leaders: Outside of Dunham and McCullough, wide receiver Andre Evans caught five passes for 95 yards and a score, and Sherard Feaster added eight carries for 55 yards.
▪ Here’s left tackle Jordan Knox (again) on his team’s third win in as many games: “Last week, we were on the road in Clover. This week we were on the road. The next two are on the road. We got a tough stretch coming up. But it’s always good to win. I looked at the South Pointe game not as a loss. I looked at it as a learning (experience). We came in the next week really focused and locked in.”
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 11:43 PM.
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