Westside edges West Laurens in physical affair

Led by an offensive line that was doing plenty of heavy lifting, Westside was able to run down the clock against one of the top-ranked teams in a higher classification Friday.

Westside bounced back from early adversity to claim a 27-24 victory over West Laurens, the No. 5 team in GHSA Class AAAA, at the Ed DeFore Sports Complex. The victory gives Class AAA Westside a 3-0 record heading into next week’s key region showdown against Central.

After a wild first quarter that saw Westside give up a 68-yard interception return for a touchdown to West Laurens’ Doryan Gorham and also a safety following a Bill Leroy punt that was downed inside the Westside 1, the Seminoles settled down.

In addition to an early 25-yard touchdown run, Westside quarterback Savion Knowlton connected on three scoring passes. His 15-yarder to Steve Dolphus with 1:02 to go before halftime put Westside up 20-15, a lead the Seminoles held the rest of the way.

“I’m so proud of my guys; they fought,” Westside head coach Spoon Risper said. “Hats off to (the West Laurens) kids, they fought. That was a tough football team out there, and it goes to show that our football team is a tough football team, too.”

Both teams wanted to control the clock in the second half with long drives, a plan that wound up working better for Westside.

West Laurens held the ball for the first 7:34 of the second half, driving from its own 28 to the Westside 1. But the Raiders had to settle for a 24-yard field goal by Leroy following an illegal procedure call.

Westside came back with a drive of its own that lasted 8:47. Unlike West Laurens’ long drive, however, the 20-play drive the Seminoles launched from their own 20 was capped by a 2-yard pass from Knowlton to Dolphus to make it 27-18 with 7:39 remaining in the game.

While West Laurens’ Darius Bradford answered 50 seconds later with his second touchdown of the night, a 53-yarder up the middle that made it 27-24 (a bad snap thwarted the extra-point attempt), the Westside offense killed plenty of time in the closing minutes. The Seminoles got a good push up front down the stretch, controlling the line of scrimmage.

“In the first half, I came in kind of nervous a little bit, but my line was protecting me,” Knowlton said. “The second half, we knew we had to come out fired up, and they stepped up. They did a great job of protecting me.”

After the teams traded three-and-out possessions, Westside went on a nine-play, 27-yard drive that almost took the final 4:14 off the clock.

While a bad punt snap gave West Laurens the ball at its own 42 with 16 seconds to go, the Raiders (3-1) couldn’t do anything with their final chance. A middle screen pass went nowhere, and time expired as West Laurens had no timeouts remaining.

“We made way too many mistakes in the first half, and that’s very uncharacteristic for us,” West Laurens head coach Stacy Nobles said. “But I’m proud of our kids for coming back. We had the chance to do some things in the second half. Two good teams played (Friday).”

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Westside edges West Laurens in physical affair ."