Westfield ready for rematch against Valwood
Two victories remain necessary for Westfield in its quest for a third GISA Class AAA championship in a row.
The next order of business for the Hornets, however, is a shot at revenge. Westfield (11-1) hosts Valwood on Friday in the semifinal round. The Valiants (10-2) handed the Hornets their only loss of the season by a score of 55-28 on Aug. 28.
Both teams are plenty familiar with playing late into the season. Westfield has won the past two state titles in the Class AAA classification. Valwood advanced to the quarterfinals last year after moving up to Class AAA on the heels of back-to-back state championship game appearances in Class AA, winning the title in 2012.
To avoid a second loss within the same season to Valwood, Westfield is aiming to avoid the things that took down the Hornets in the previous meeting that saw each team put up plenty of offense before miscues enabled the Valiants to pull away in the final quarter. Valwood led 20-14 at halftime.
"We made a bunch of mistakes, and of course, that's part of the game. We had some bad snaps, bad snaps on punts and turnovers," Westfield head coach Ronnie Jones said. "Sometimes, things don't just go your way. Valwood didn't make those mistakes, and we did."
Naturally, the Hornets' task would be made easier Friday if they can avoid an offensive track meet between their wing-T attack and the Valiants' passing game and quarterback Jacob Parker, who accounted for five touchdowns and 316 yards, including 211 through the air, in the previous meeting.
"Offensively, they certainly had a lot of the short completions and made big gains out of them, and we had a tough time. They had a lot of yards against us," Jones said. "We just have to do a better job against the pass and hopefully contain the quarterback."
To keep Valwood's offense on the sidelines, Westfield will look to its run-heavy offense to eat time off the clock. And like most wing-T offenses, there is no clear-cut star for the Hornets with seemingly a different player stepping up each week.
Josh Jenkins leads the way on the ground with 1,242 yards and 19 touchdowns. He has been complemented by Reagan Waller's 774 yards and six touchdowns in addition to quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick's 487 rushing yards and five touchdowns.
A prime example of Westfield's offensive balance was shown in last week's quarterfinal win over Brookwood. With more defensive focus on Jenkins, Fitzpatrick was freed up to rush for 85 yards and three touchdowns. Jenkins still finished with 119 yards, and Waller had 159.
"It's driven us to try and get better no matter who the opponent is," Jones said of the loss to Valwood. "We're happy to get another chance at the team that gave us our only loss."
This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 10:35 PM with the headline "Westfield ready for rematch against Valwood ."