Fort Mill, SC — Region 3-5A play continued Friday night as the Catawba Ridge Copperheads played host to the Northwestern Trojans. Despite the Copperheads scoring on their opening drive, Northwestern dominated the night in scoring 42 unanswered points and walked away with a 59-17 road win and an undefeated record.
The Copperheads elected to receive the ball to start the first half and quickly took advantage of the opportunity by driving down the field an capitalizing on a third and goal end zone pass to Preston Cooper. The ensuing kickoff was a touchback and the Trojans started their opening drive on their own 20 yard line. Just like their defense, Northwestern’s offense started off slow when Catawba’s Isaiah Revell intercepted the Trojan pass. On their opening play, the Copperheads fumbled the ball away to the Trojans on the 42, but they were forced to punt on a three and out. Catawba Ridge couldn’t find any momentum either and punted the ball away. The Trojans started to find their rythem on the ground as running back Zymier Gordon-miles eventually found the first down marker. Northwestern made it to the five yard line before Catawba’s Eric Johnson came up with a key backfield stop on third down to force a Trojan’s field goal.
The Copperheads couldn’t do anything with their opportunity and were forced to punt the ball away. Northwestern went back to the passing game to convert on third down. Finding themselves on the goalline, Northwestern punched in their first touchdown of the game with little more than a minute remaining in the first quarter. Now up 10-7, Northwestern held the lead the rest of the way.
Any momentum the Copperheads had to start the second quarter quickly faded as three consecutive incomplete passes forced a punt. The Copperhead defense had the Trojans on their heels with a fourth and short situation when a facemask call gave Northwestern an easy first down. They didn’t need to use the new found set of downs as the first play from scrimmage was a deep pass for a Trojan touchdown. The visitors were up 17-7 at 10:19 of the second quarter.
With less than seven minutes remaining in the half, the Copperhead’s Nolan Jones came up with the interception. A few plays later and the home team has narrowed the gap at 14-17. Northwestern relied on the legs of Gordon-miles ground game for the balance of the night as he picked up consecutive first downs. Quarterback Finley Polk kept the ball on a run up the middle for the score. The Trojans tacked on another score a few minutes later to make it 31-14 going in half time.
Northwestern tacked on another 21 points in the third quarter and seven more in the fourth. Catawba Ridge added a field goal to start the fourth quarter, but that was their final score of the night. The game ended with Northwestern up 59-17 over the home team Copperheads.
Catawba Ridge moves to 4-2 on the season and 1-1 in the region. They have a buy this week.
Northwestern improves on their undefeated run and are 2-0 in the region. They play host to Clover next Friday.
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Photo credit Chris Coffee.
