Westside pulls away from Rutland for season-opening win

Westside withstood an early swell of Rutland momentum and pulled away late in the first half to post a 38-19 victory Friday night at the Ed DeFore Sports Complex.

“It feels really good,” Westside head coach Sheddrick Risper said. “I knew that Rutland was going to come out and play. (Rutland head coach George) Collins does a tremendous job of getting his teams ready to play us. They get up for us every time, and we know it’s not going to be a cake walk. I’m just proud of my guys for responding. We made a lot of mistakes, but credit Rutland for playing a great game.”

After a defensive stand on the opening drive of the game by Westside, Rutland responded with its best drive of the night. The Hurricanes went 65 yards in seven plays, capped by a 1-yard run from Ladarian Womack.

Westside answered with a field goal to close the scoring in the first quarter, before registering four unanswered touchdowns in the second to take a 31-6 lead to the half.

Seminoles quarterback Savion Knowlton was 4-of-7 for 69-yards and three scores in the second quarter.

Rutland managed three first downs on its scoring drive but was held to just two by a stingy Westside defense the rest of the way, both of those coming by way of penalties.

“The defense really responded well, and they played hard,” Risper said. “They made some mistakes at times, but they played hard, and I’m proud of what they did.”

Penalties were a problem for the Seminoles all night long. Westside committed 16 for a total of 139 yards to put a damper on an otherwise solid performance.

“We’re going to clean that up through practice,” Risper said. “We’ll see who committed the penalties, and they’ll see me on Monday after practice so I can remind them not to have penalties.”

Westside will be on the road Friday to face Harris County, while Rutland faces Northeast on Thursday.