5A Playoffs: T.L. Hanna vs. Northwestern: Defensive standouts

Brandon Stockdale November 28, 2020 @ 04:45 PM

ROCK HILL, S.C. - T.L. Hanna and Northwestern defeated their second round opponents in the SCHSL Playoffs in tight ball games last Friday night and this one was a repeat of last week’s thrillers, this time at District 3 Stadium. But the stakes were much higher: A birth in the state championship was on the line. T.L. Hanna was able to take 8:33 off the clock in the 4th quarter to score the game winning touchdown to win 28-24. The Yellow Jackets will face Dutch Fork, who will be going for their 5th straight state title next Friday night at 7:30 p.m at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C. Let’s get into the defensive standouts for both teams in what was a thriller: Northwestern 2021 DL Kortez Heath - The senior forced a fumble early in the first quarter and was able to punch the ball out in the middle of an inside run play that the Yellow Jackets ran all night. 2022 DB Tay McCroey - Northwestern’s defense started to make some adjustments against the Yellow Jackets’ Wing T option attack and we noticed he and a host of Trojan defenders made a play on a sweep play in the third quarter. We noticed several guys for Northwestern were able to make plays at times against the sweep plays. T.L. Hanna 2021 FS/RB Nick Carson - The Yellow Jackets knew Northwestern WR Christian Watkins was going to get the ball and we noticed on a particular throw over the middle in the second quarter how quickly he closed on the ball. 2022 QB/OLB Fletcher Cothran - Northwestern threw a lot of quick out patterns and this guy, who played both ways on Friday night and nearly had an interception they may have been a pick-six if he would’ve caught it. The game-winning stop for T.L. Hanna came on an inside run play from Northwestern's Kyle Aldridge on an inside run play and Aldridge was stopped short, preserving the victory.