RNE shuts out Westwood 25-0

By WORTHY EVANS

Special to the HSSR

Columbia - Friday night’s game against former region rival Westwood was not necessarily a showcase game for Richland Northeast quarterback Will Wilson.

He just did what he could to win.

Wilson and his receivers gave the Cavaliers enough firepower for the defense to close out a 25-0 shutout of the Redhawks at Cavs field.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it was efficient and it worked, so I’ll take it,” head coach Walt Wilson said. “We’re just trying to get better every time we touch the field.”

With the win, RNE (3-0) is off to its best start since 2010. That year the Cavaliers started 4-0 and finished 7-5.

Wilson, a North Carolina State commit, managed 206 yards and two touchdown passes on 21-of-29 passes. He threw one to Isiah Smalls from 10 yards out in the second quarter and tossed a 14-yarder to Blake Betette in the third quarter.

Wilson also had 10 carries for 65 rushing yards.

Westwood (1-2), which came off a 35-0 win over Lakewood last week, moved the ball consistently on the runs of Alberto Rios and occasional passes from Carrington Carter to several Redhawks receivers.

Coming off a 1-9 season, Westwood head coach Robert O’Connell said that he sees a lot of progress in cutting out mistakes and moving the ball down the field.

“If you told me before the game that we’d hold them to three scores on offense, I’d feel pretty good about our chance to win,” O’Connell said. “We talked about continuing to try to grow from it and continue to get better, which we have in the past three weeks. It didn’t turn out the way we wanted but the biggest thing in these non-region games is to continue to grow and improve.”

The Cavaliers stayed with Westwood every step of the way, especially with Chris Asuzu’s interception return for a touchdown midway through the first quarter.

Quarterback Carrington Carter looked to get a drive started on Westwood’s second possession. Instead, he threw a pass that got tipped and fell into the hands of Asuzu at midfield, and the wily defensive back dodged tackles and returned the pick to the end zone for RNE’s first score, at the 2:55 mark of the first quarter. 

When Westwood got the ball back, Carter led the way on a 13-play 66-yard drive to set up a 37-yard Cullen Henderson field goal attempt. Henderson’s kick fell a couple yards short of the crossbar and the Cavaliers took over at the RNE 21-yard line.

From there Wilson put together his first scoring drive, connecting with Camryn Buckley, Isiah Smalls and Dillon Hughy to set up a second-and-4 at the Westwood 10-yard line. Wilson connected with Smalls, who ran in for RNE’s second score. The conversion pass failed, giving the Cavaliers a 12-0 lead with 4:21 left in the first half. 

Westwood punted on the next possession and the Cavs were at midfield when the first-half clock expired. 

The Cavs took possession to open the second half. Wilson led his team on an 11-play, 56-yard drive that Wilson capped with his 14-yard TD pass to Betette about three minutes into the second half. RNE failed to convert again, making it 18-0.

Westwood went on a long drive that ended with a turnover on downs. RNE then sapped the clock on a long drive of its own.

Darin Brown capped that drive with a 6-yard TD run, and the Cavaliers finally made good on a points-after attempt, even when slapped with two penalties that set the ball on the 23-yard line for the PAT. Placekicker Jorge Rodriguez put RNE up 25-0 with 6:53 left in the game when his low kick from 40 yards out cleared the crossbar by a yard. 

Next week the Cavaliers head to Nation Ford to take on the Falcons. Nation Ford fell 35-30 to River Bluff Friday night.

“It’s a big challenge. They came here last year, we had them for homecoming,” Coach Wilson said about Nation Ford, whom RNE beat 41-38 last year. “I’m sure they’ve got some plans for us this year, but we’re just going to try to get better next week and do what we do.”

Westwood is at Airport (0-2) Friday night. Orangeburg-Wilkinson beat the Eagles 14-9 Friday.

Westwoood               0         0         0         0         –          0

Richland Northeast  6         6         6         7         –         25

First Quarter

R - Chris Asuzu 50 interception return (kick failed) 2:55 

Second Quarter

R - Isiah Smalls 10 pass from Will Wilson (pass failed) 4:21

Third Quarter

R – Blake Betette 14 pass from Wilson (run failed) 7:16

Fourth Quarter

R – Darin Brown 6 run (Jorge Rodriguez kick) 6:53

                              WHS           RNE

First downs            12               19

Rushes-yards    32-100       21-93

Passing yards      88             206

Att-Com-Int       17-9-1       29-21-0

Fumbles-lost       0-0            1-0

Penalties-yards  4-30       14-120

Punts-avg           1-46.0       1-15.0

RUSHING

W – Angelo Rios 16-65, Quentin McGill Jr. 9-37, Carrington Carter 6-(-4), Kham Cunningham 1-1. R – Camryn Buckley 11-28, Will Wilson10-65.

PASSING

W – Carrington Carter 9-17-1. R – Will Wilson 21-29-0.

RECEIVING

W – Quentin McGill 4-24, Sean Goddard 3-40, Kham Cunningham 1-19, Angelo Rios 1-5. R – Blake Betette 7-74, Isiah Smalls 7-59, Dillon Hughy 6-65, Camryn Buckley 1-8.