Westside tries for another road playoff win

The Westside Seminoles certainly enjoyed being the only fourth seed in GHSA Class AAA to win its first-round playoff game last week.

But head coach Spoon Risper knew as soon as it was finished that it was time to focus on its next challenge, a second-round road game against a Sonoraville team that has won its past three games.

"That was a really big win for us last week," Risper said. "When you're in a tournament format and get another shot to advance even further, you're always excited about that opportunity. Our kids and coaching staff are very grateful for that, but we knew it was time to get focused on (Sonoraville) very quick. Our attention turned to them the very next day."

As the top seed from Region 3-AAA, Sonoraville has also won four of its past five games, scoring 40 or more points in each of those wins.

In its 49-28 first-round victory over East Hall last week, Sonoraville jumped out to a 20-0 lead and rushed for a whopping 518 yards with all seven touchdowns coming on the ground.

Sonoraville quarterback Cody Long attempted just three passes, but he rolled up 261 yards on 23 carries and three touchdowns, while running back Hunter Lay averaged nearly 15 yards per carry for the game, rushing 13 times for 192 yards along with three touchdowns.

Senior linebacker Tradonus Lausey leads the Seminoles' defense with 81 tackles, while Kareem Warren is next with 58, and a team-high 26 tackles for loss.

"(Sonoraville) is a very good, fundamentally sound team," Risper said. "There is no mystery to what they're going to do. They want to run it, but the times they do happen to throw it, they do a good job of picking their spots. They don't make mistakes or put the ball on the ground. We are really going to have to be at our best."

But even as a four-seed, Westside did not get to the second round by mistake.

The Seminoles went on the road and, except for an 88-yard touchdown run by Laney running back Willie Eubanks III on the first play of the opening drive, completely dominated Laney's offense, holding the hosts to just 132 total yards.

Even with a lot of momentum riding into Friday's game, Risper knows his Seminoles will have to be nearly perfect in order to pull off another upset on the road.

"We have to do a lot of things well against (Sonoraville)," Risper said. "We have to stay in front of the sticks and can't have second or third and long situations. You have to move the chains on third down against them and score in the red zone. We're excited for the opportunity we have in front of us."

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 8:52 AM with the headline "Westside tries for another road playoff win ."