Momentum, not streak, the focus for Westside

Westside has a streak that's impressive, but it's one the Seminoles don't talk about much.

The Seminoles have never lost to another Bibb County program, and it is no secret that all the teams are gunning to take down the streak. In the season finale, Southwest gets the final shot at the streak this season when the teams play Friday at the Ed DeFore Sports Complex.

That, however, is now where Westside's focus is.

"Everybody in town knows about the streak," Westside head coach Spoon Risper said. "To be honest, we don't really focus on the streak, we focus on us. We worry about the things that we can control.

"We know everybody in Macon is going to play us tough. We don't go out on the field to play a Macon school thinking it's going to be easy. We know it's everybody's Super Bowl."

The Seminoles are off a 22-17 loss to Peach County. Westside had to play without quarterback Savion Knowlton, who has passed for 16 touchdowns and more than 1,300 yards. He sat out with a concussion, and wide receiver Gerimie Mitchell took his place and completed 17-of-24 passes for 243 yarsd and a touchdown.

Southwest is out of the playoff picture in GHSA Region 2-AAA, but it still wants to build some much-needed momentum heading into the offseason. The Patriots (3-6, 2-5 in region) will need to pull off the upset to do just that.

"We didn't reach our goals that we talked about at the beginning of the year," said Patriots head coach Joseph Dupree, whose team won three games last year, as well. "It is really a tough time of year for us but going into this game we can gain some momentum by winning this ballgame. "I just want my kids to go out there give perfect effort and play at a high level and let the chips fall where they may,"

The Seminoles (6-3, 4-3 in region) haven't locked up a Class AAA playoff berth just yet, so Risper said his team can't

"We keep our guys from overlooking them by practicing for Southwest," he said. "We know that they have some tremendous athletes. They are fast, they have some big playmakers. That is one thing we don't do over here, we don't overlook anybody."

With the seniors playing their last game for Southwest, they are hungry for a win.

"It depends on the mindset of your team, and with this team. I know they are not going to quit," Dupree said. "They are going to give effort and play for four quarters. I am hoping that is becoming the culture of Southwest football.

"For the seniors I just ask them 'how do you want to be remembered',"

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 8:57 PM with the headline "Momentum, not streak, the focus for Westside ."