Dutch Fork a formidable force again, defeats Westwood
Just three short weeks ago, Dutch Fork looked like a team still searching for its identity. Now nobody wants to see them as the calendar turns to November.
The Silver Foxes caused four turnovers to handle Westwood 38-28 Friday night for their third straight win and with that take control of Region 4-4A with one game remaining in the regular season. If the Silver Foxes defeated Lugoff-Elgin next week, they own the tiebreaker over the Redhawks to win the region.
“We’re getting there but still have a ways to go,” Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts said.
Cole Douglas threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more to lead Dutch Fork (7-3, 3-1). The Silver Foxes finished with 428 yards.
Clayton Jones, who finished with 103 yards rushing, scored on a 21-yard run with two minutes in the half to give Dutch Fork the lead, 21-14, for good. That started a stretch of 24 straight points to put the Silver Foxes in control.
Dante Scott caught his second touchdown pass on the night, Ford Williams kicked a 20-yard field goal and Douglas scored on a 1-yard run to give the Silver Foxes a 38-14 lead with 7:30 remaining.
Westwood (8-2, 3-1) scored two late touchdowns to make it more respectable.
TURNING POINT
Dutch Fork led 21-14 at the half but Westwood received the second half kickoff. On the first play, the Redhawks fumbled and Shane Savage recovered for the Silver Foxes. Four plays later, Dante Scott caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Douglas to extend the lead to 28-14.
KEY PERFORMERS
Cole Douglas: Douglas accounted for 299 yards of total offense. He threw for 167 and ran for 132 more. He ran or threw on 45 of the 66 offensive plays.
Dante Scott: The senior tight end only had two catches, but both went for touchdowns.
Rudy Mitchell: A week after running for 467 yards, the junior had 127 yards and two touchdowns for Westwood.
KEY NUMBERS
4: Number of turnovers by Westwood
6:52: Time of drive that put Dutch Fork ahead by three scores on the first play of the fourth quarter.
7: Number of third and fourth down conversions by Dutch Fork in 14 tries
THEY SAID IT
“We played loose, we played hard, we played intense and smart for the most part. When they scored we came back and answered and the defense didn’t let down until that last six minutes.” – Tom Knotts, Dutch Fork Coach
“We’re depleted. We have some guys that might make it back but we are what we are. We’re not good enough to lay down. I think this was a life lesson.” – Knotts
“I thought we got things rolling when we tied it up but you can’t turned the ball over like we did. We only ran seven plays in the third quarter. To play like we did in the second half hurts. We can’t put our defense in that situation.” — Rodney Summers, Westwood coach
HOW THEY SCORED
1st Quarter
DF – Cole Douglas 13 run (Ford Williams run) 0:19\
2nd Quarter
DF – Dante Scott 29 pass from Douglas (Williams kick) 9:42
W – Rudy Mitchell 58 run (Brandon Howard kick) 8:50
W – Mitchell 4 run (Howard kick) 4:50
DF – Clayton Jones 21 run (Williams kick) 2:05
3rd Quarter
DF – Scott 15 pass from Douglas (Williams kick) 10:03
4th Quarter
DF – Williams 20 FG 11:55
W – Malik Griffin 40 pass from Jalen Smith (Howard kick) 6:32
W – Andrew Plante 7 run (Howard kick) 2:18
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: W – Rudy Mitchell 16-127, Jalen Smith 12-54, Andrew Plante 2-10. DF – Cole Douglas 27-132, Clayton Jones 17-103, Jesse Ragin 2-18, Austin Conner 1-8.
Passing: W - Smith 11-24-1-142. DF – Douglas 8-18-1-167
Receiving: W – Deuntrey Ryshun-Gallman 2-15, Malik Griffin 6-88, Montre Miller 1-11, J. Robinson 1-16. DF – Ward Hacklen 3-91, Dante Scott 2-44, Connor 1-18, Alec DeBoer 1-5.