Westfield 46 - Patriot 33

[falcettik]

In a game where the defenses finally wore down in the second half, Westfield held off Patriot to come away with a 46-33 victory.

Patriot opened the game on their own 26 yard line and advanced to the Westfield 38 where they failed on a 4th and 13, turning the ball over to WF on the WF 47 yard line. WF drove into the Patriot red zone, but a 28 yard FG attempt was missed. Patriot started their second series on their own 20 yard line, but after a fumble by Patriot's QB Sonnenberg was recovered by WF's Steinhilber on the Patriot 12 yard line, WF opened the scoring on a 2 yard Kim run to go up 7-0 (Steinhilber XP) with 3:06 to play in the first quarter. Patriot then went three and out; WF started their next drive on the WF 41 yard line and on the first play of the drive WF's Asante went 59 yards to push the lead to 13-0 (XP missed) with 1:00 to play in the first quarter. Patriot started their next drive on the Patriot 30 yard line and went 70 yards, with Onwuka scoring on a 29 yard run to cut the lead to 14-7 (Slaiby XP) with 10:36 to play in the half. After a WF three and out series, Patriot took over on their own 20 yard line. During a penalty filled drive (penalties by both teams) Patriot managed to reach the WF 16 yard line before they were stopped and elected to try a 33 yard FG that was blocked by WF's Morin. WF took over on their own 40 yard line, and shortly after Kim hit Morin on a 42 yard pass play and WF extended the lead to 20-7 (Hildrup XP) with 30 seconds to play in the half.

The second half saw a whole bunch of short scoring drives, kicked off by a one play, 59 yard Kim to Woodley pass for a TD to open the half and put WF ahead 26-7 (XP missed) just 8 seconds into the half. After another Patriot drive stalled in WF territory and Patriot turned the ball over on downs, WF started their second drive of the half on their own 25 yard line. They marched down the field, only to see a Knowlton INT of WF's Kim on the WF two yard line negated by a roughing the passer penalty, keeping the WF drive alive. WF scored soon after on a 25 yard Asante run to go up 33-7 (Hildrup XP) with 2:03 to play in the third quarter, and the game appeared over-but not so fast. Patriot, which had struggled to do much on the ground to this point, decided to go with almost all passes for the rest of the game and it paid dividends. However, this is where the defenses disappeared and 33 points were scored in a little over 4 minutes at the start of the 4th quarter. Patriot started their next possession on their 37 yard line and after a few plays the sequence went like this:
- 21 yard Onwuka run; WF 33-14 (Slaiby XP), 11:26 4th quarter
- 93 yard Morin KO return; WF 40-14 (Hildrup XP), 11:14 4th quarter
- next play: 60 yard Sonnenberg to Giwa (original post said Onwuka) pass; WF 40-21 (Slaiby XP), 10:59 4th quarter
- WF three and out
- next play: 45 yard Onwuka run; WF 40-27 (XP missed), 8:25 4th quarter
- a few plays later, 27 yard Goodman run; WF 46-27 (XP blocked by Marcelle), 7:15 4th quarter

Patriot answered on their next drive, capping a 79 yard drive with a 1 yard Onwuka run to cut the lead to 46-33 (XP blocked by Morin) with 3:32 to play. Each team then had one scoreless drive and the game ended with WF winning 46-33.

 

[1amishfootballfan]

Another nice write-up of the action. I haven't been at many games where there was such a sudden shift of momentum. Patriot had one of the larger offensive lines I have seen in high school and they really neutralized the Westfield pass rush in the second half. Impressive.

http://www.fauquier.com/prince_will...cle_1c807f88-a51d-11e7-89b1-d3e15a56c980.html

 

[BlueFan]

From the Washington Post statistics:
WF RB Eugene Asante (#8) had 24 carries for 195 yards.
WF QB Noah Kim was 9-12 for 140 yards, 2 TDs, and no interception.
WF Gavin Kiley (#5) returned a kickoff 93 yards for TD.

I wanted to recognize some Patriot players, especially QB Sonnenberg (#12) and RB Onwuka? (#3) and WR (name?) (#6) but the Post didn't have Patriots's roster or stats.

Now, some questions:

Why did WF kicker Steinhilber kick squib kicks in the whole game? He kicked several touchbacks in earlier games which put the ball at the 20-yard line. Against Patriot, the ball often ended up being spotted between 30 and 40 yard line. So, in a sense, by kicking squib kicks, WF was giving away 10-20 yards to Patriot.

The WF defense line hardly put any pressure on Patriot QB the whole night. I don't remember seeing any QB sacks. With the 3-linemen scheme, WF is giving up more rushing and passing yardage and more TDs. How is WF benefiting from the 3-linemen scheme?

 

[falcettik]

From what I was told, Steinhilber was instructed NOT to kick to #3-Onwuka, who scored 4 of their 5 TDs. When Onwuka lined up in the center of the field near the 10 for KOs, Steinhilber had to squib it like he did to keep it out of Onwuka's hands. That kid was very fast.

As for the D-line, I have no idea what the game plan is. I do know they were to told to contain the QB against SJ, so they did not get into the backfield much, and they did limit a dangerous running QB by doing so. Against WS, the D-line got plenty of penetration. I will go out on a limb with the Patriot game - the Patriot O-line was huge, probably the biggest I have seen/will see this year so I am going to surmise that had something to do with it.

 

[jrogue44]

Westfield D-Line 3 Man Scheme: Facing an Explosive Offense with Tremendous Talent at the Skill Positions, seems to be the Formula for Success when Playing teams with that type of Skill. Let us Remember it was 40-14 in the 4th Qtr.

An Individual Perspective..Westfield just is not that Deep along the D-line as in past Years, they primarily Run a 3-man Rotation amongst their 1& 3 Techniques, DeMoney being one of those guys, he's Hurt, now have a 2-man Rotation. Strong side DE that Role falls to 1-Guy. WS DE, 2-man Rotation, speed Rushers Scwieger and Beach, Beach went down with a serious injury mid-way through game. 1-man rotation. (Clancy got hurt Early on as well).

I don't Think you Lay the Blame at the feet of the D-line for the 3-late Scores, one was a Quick out that a speedy Reciever burned an out of position DB, One was an Isolation up the Middle with No LB to fill.

Westfield has Faced 5 spread offenses their First 5-games, they are 5-0. The Bigger Question I would pose is where are they going to get the Bodies for a 5-6 man Front against Traditional Run oriented Offenses in Madison and Centreville.