Westfield ready for showdown with Deerfield-Windsor

Westfield has won the GISA Class AAA championship the past two years, but two weeks ago it was soundly defeated by Valwood 55-28. The Hornets bounced back with a convincing win over Trinity Christian last week and head into this Friday night’s game against Deerfield-Windsor on a positive note.

“The loss to Valwood humbled us,” head coach Ronnie Jones said. “Here we are feeling pretty good about ourselves with state championships the last two years, and we lose our second game of the year. The thing about that game is that it was close until the fourth quarter, and we lost about seven players from cramps, and most of those guys were playing on offense and defense. We know that we don’t have a lot of depth this year, and that was why the score got so lopsided.

“We just were not able to compete after losing so many guys.”

Westfield (2-1) has some quality skill players in quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who accounted for three touchdowns against Trinity Christian, and Giles Amos, but Jones is looking for others to step up.

“It all starts on the offensive line, and we have only one starter back from last year,” Jones said. “We are getting better up front, but we have a lot of guys that have not played very much over the last few years. I won’t say that we are young because we aren’t that young, but we are very inexperienced in key positions. We have to have continued improvement from those guys.”

Jones also stressed that the players on the field who aren’t touching the ball have to be better.

“In our offense, it is very important that everyone is carrying out their fakes at full speed, and that has been an issue,” Jones said. “We are seeing some improvement, but we still have a long way to go.”

Westfield split with Deerfield a year ago, losing the regular season-game 35-25 before beating the Knights 28-7 in the playoffs. The 2-1 Knights have 30 upperclassmen.

“I think before the season started, everyone was saying that Deerfield was the favorite because they do bring so many players back this year,” Jones said. “This is a huge rivalry game for us, and I know that we have played some great games in the past with them, and of course, I am expecting the same thing this year.

“It is one of those games that you circle on the schedule ever year that gets everyone excited.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Westfield ready for showdown with Deerfield-Windsor ."