Northwestern High School falls short to Greenville after failed two-point conversion

Northwestern head coach Page Wofford had already made up his mind.

After quarterback Finley Polk found wide receiver Jaylen Burris in the end zone with 21 seconds remaining to pull Northwestern within a point of Greenville in the teams’ South Carolina state playoff game, the Trojans coach never hesitated.

Win, or go home.

Northwestern went for two — and missed.

Polk rolled out right and threw a ball just out of the reach of sophomore wide receiver Kameron Vance, and the pass fell incomplete.

Greenville recovered the ensuing onside kick and held on for the 42-41 victory.

“We practice that play every week,” Wofford said. “We had it on film with other teams running that same play, and again, wide open. We didn’t execute. That’s my fault. I didn’t coach it well enough. I didn’t get the guys ready for this game well enough. I didn’t get them prepared for this game based on the penalties and everything else and the missed assignments, everything that went on. So it’s not just one play; it was a bunch of plays.”

After taking a 28-14 early in the third quarter thanks to running back Turbo Richard’s second rushing touchdown of the night, Northwestern found itself unable to generate any points on offense, nor any stops on defense.

Greenville scored 28 unanswered, scoring on each of its next five offensive possessions to take a 42-28 lead with 4:36 remaining.

Northwestern mustered only two yards of total offense in that span, punting the ball three times and losing a fumble.

“They were beating us up front,” Wofford said. “They had five in the box, which left six in coverage over (our) four (wide receivers)...They were smart about it, and they’d bring a blitz every now and then that really gave us trouble. We just didn’t pick it up. But that’s not it either. We missing assignments out there, missing reads and running wrong routes or running poor routes. We had our way with them kind of in the first half, they made an adjustment in the second half and good for them. They’re a good football team and they’re well coached.”

Northwestern sparked a run late.

The Trojans drove down the field and scored a touchdown on fourth down thanks to a three-yard screen pass from Polk to Richard to cut the Trojans’ deficit to 42-35.

After recovering the ensuing onside kick, Northwestern again drove down the field with tempo before Polk threw his fourth touchdown pass of the game to pull the Trojans within one.

It’s a disappointing end to the season for a Northwestern team that finished as upper state champions last season.

Wofford doesn’t want this loss to define this season for Northwestern.

“It doesn’t take away from the season we had and the things we accomplished and the things we did,” Wofford said. “It’s going to hurt. It’s going to sting for a while, and we got to get as far away from this as we can and learn from it.”

“I’m sure (the players will) be hurting. The seniors had a great year. There’s nothing to take away from what we accomplished this year. You’re getting to this point in the playoffs and everybody’s good. You make the mistakes that we made, the penalties, the missed blocking assignments and stuff like that and you’re going to lose to good teams.”

Northwestern finishes the season 11-2.