Westwood beats Blythewood 7-0 in The Battle for the Axe

           Blythewood -- The Westwood High School football team had taken some beatings over the last two years. This season the Redhawks walked off with a couple of victories before going into The Battle for the Axe against archrival Blythewood on Friday.

           In the teams’ eighth meeting in fighting for the Jeanne Schmidt Memorial Trophy since 2015

(two games were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19 infections), the Redhawks scored

a third-quarter touchdown and shut out the Bengals 7-0 at Westwood’s District Two Stadium.

           “I’m so proud of these kids. They’ve just continued to fight,” WHS head coach Robert O’Connell said.

“I know it’s been a tough couple of years, but there’s no quit in this group. I’m extremely proud.”

           Westwood, which improved to 3-2 on the season, also happened to get its first Region 5-AAAAA

win.

           Both teams battled to a scoreless tie by halftime, but Westwood quarterback Carrington Carter

led the team on a 10-play, 80-yard drive on its first possession of the second half. Carter closed

out the drive with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Uriah Lofton.

           "Our defense had been playing phenomenally all season, and we’ve just got to put some points on

the board,” Carter said. “That’s what I was thinking, we’ve just got to score, score, score, score, score.”

           As it turned out, one score was all Westwood needed.

           And when Blythewood, which fell to 4-1, aimed for the end zone on its last drive, quarterback John Henry Collins scanned the end zone from the 13-yard line, and his eyes met defender Justin

Washington.

           Washington hovered in the back of the end zone and intercepted Collins’ pass in the closing two

minutes of the game to help seal the Westwood win.

           “I saw his eyes. I looked right at him,” Washington said of spying on Collins. “I saw him try to

get (to a receiver) behind me, and he threw it right in my hands.”

           The Redhawks used their final possession to eat the rest of the clock and finish with their first win of

the series since 2019, when they beat Blythewood 14-7.

           Blythewood and Westwood battled through a scoreless first half.

           The Bengals took the opening kickoff and drove 73 yards on 18 plays, reaching the Westwood 4-

yard line. On fourth down and one yard to go from that yard mark, Collins was hit for an 11-yard loss and the Bengals turned the ball over on downs. 

           Westwood and Blythewood exchanged short possessions from then on, with two turnovers on

downs, two punts, and a Blythewood fumble. 

           The only play into the end zone was Carter’s 69-yard touchdown pass to Kham Cunningham at

the 1:28 mark of the second quarter. That play was stricken from the scoreboard on an ineligible

man downfield call against the Redhawks.

           After Westwood put a touchdown on the scoreboard, Blythewood caught a couple of bad breaks

when two touchdowns were called back on one third-quarter possession.

           First came Carter Coleman's 80-yard touchdown return on a Westwood punt, which was called

back for an illegal blindside block and an unsportsmanlike conduct. Later in the drive Collins

threw a 16-yard touchdown pass, but that one was called back on a holding penalty.

          Blythewood’s four possessions of the second half ended with two turnovers on downs, a punt,

and Washington’s pick in the end zone.

          Throughout the game Blythewood’s passing offense was under heavy pressure from the

Westwood secondary. Collins finished the night 26-for-37 in passing with one interception and

249 yards, but often his receivers were so well covered that the junior quarterback got flushed

out of the pocket. Rushers either sacked him or tackled him for a loss four times.

         "Justin Washington with the pick down here at the end, Devonte Armstrong, Dominique

Armstrong, Zion Oliver, Christian Smith,” O’Connell began in reeling off the names of his

defensive backs. “You talk about a prolific offense, I don’t know what the yardage was, but a

shutout’s a shutout.”

           Westwood’s fortunes after the score weren’t much better than Blythewood’s. The Redhawks

punted twice, but their final possession ended with a victory formation, thanks to the one drive

that made the difference in the storied rivalry in the town of Blythewood.

           “We worked extremely hard this week,” Carter said. “The defense came through, the offensive

line came through, and we all just came together and had a big team win.”

           Blythewood returns to its home field for the first time since August 30 next week, playing host to

Spring Valley. The 0-5 Vikings fell 56-7 to Sumter in their region opener.

           Westwood plays at Ridge View on Friday. The 1-3 Blazers were idle this week,

Blythewood 0 0 0 0 – 0

Westwood 0 0 7 0 – 7

Third Quarter

W - Uriah Lofton 9 pass from Carrington Carter (Cullen Henderson kick) 7:22

BHS WHS

First Downs 20 14

Rushes-yds 30-79 28-87

Passing yds 249 94

Att-Com-Int 37-26-1 16-8-0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0

Penalties-yds 10-94 8-60

Punts-avg. 2-24.5 4-34.0

RUSHING

B - John Henry Collins 12-5, Desmond Macklin 11-40, Alonzo Kyles 5-23, Carter Coleman 2-

11. W - Angelo Rios 16-75, Carrington Carter 9-7, Quentin McGill Jr. 1-5.

PASSING

B - John Henry Collins 26-37-1-249. W - Carrington Carter 8-16-0-94

RECEIVING

B - Kanye Reed 7-62, Chance Johnson 7-43, Carter Coleman 5-88, Ben Hendrix 4-31, Desmond

Macklin 2-6 Ryan Hall 1-19. W - Quentin McGill Jr. 5-56, Angelo Rios 1-13, Desmond

Washington 1-16, Uriah Lofton 1-9.