What We Saw: Northwestern's 2nd Half Surge Overpowers Vikings

Friday’s matchup between Northwestern and Spring Valley was a critical one as both teams were looking to tighten their grip on the fight to win region 4-5A. After a high scoring first half where the score was tied at 21, the Trojan defense shut out a high powered Viking offense in the second half and leaned on the run game to win, 35-21. Let’s get into the notes and standouts from Friday’s contest: Northwestern <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Senior QB [player_tooltip player_id="89316" first="Will" last="Mattison"]<a href="https://twitter.com/Will1Mattison"> (@Will1Mattison)</a> – Mattison faced some adversity right before halftime as he took a helmet on the shin and came right back in the second half and continued his stellar night. Head coach Page Wofford went to the run game a bit more in the second half and the senior had 6 rushes for 47 yards, to go along with the 264 passing yards and 4 touchdowns on the night. He excelled in the quick passing game as those throws turned into large gains.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Junior WR [player_tooltip player_id="146372" first="Elijah" last="Caldwell"]<a href="https://twitter.com/7Caldwell_"> (@7Caldwell_)</a> – Caldwell was an outlet for the Trojan offense throughout the night at the outside position. He was effective in making plays on the screen passes, two of them being touchdowns. Don’t get too caught up in the short passing game because we saw several times where he won one-on-one battles on deep/fade routes.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Sophomore RB Turbo Richard <a href="https://twitter.com/TurboRichard1">(@TurboRichard1)</a> – Richard is impressive once he gets into the open field. He knows where to find the green grass and pick up the yards. He doesn’t waste time dancing. It’s straight down hill running for the sophomore on the outside zone plays.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Senior OLB/SS [player_tooltip player_id="200747" first="Austin" last="Wilkes"]<a href="https://twitter.com/DaAnswer_5"> (@DaAnswer_5)</a> and DE Isaac McClellan<a href="https://twitter.com/isaac_mclellan"> (@isaac_mclellan)</a> – Both were active on the defensive front as Wilkes had good play recognition on a read option play in the first quarter. McClellan’s pursuit of Spring Valley QB [player_tooltip player_id="59480" first="DeQuandre" last="Smith"] was constant throughout the night – he recorded 3 tackles for loss.</li> </ul> <blockquote>“We had three busted coverages (in the first half). They had the back out of the backfield that we didn’t cover, they had a little crossing route that we were in man and they didn’t communicate and then another one there that was their three scores. That’s all it was to it. We were trying to give them some different looks in coverage and it ended up biting us a little bit but we’ve got a whole week coming up to fix that stuff and really communicate and get that right.” – Northwestern coach Page Wofford on the defense pitching a shutout in the 2nd half</blockquote> Spring Valley <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Senior QB [player_tooltip player_id="59480" first="DeQuandre" last="Smith"] <a href="https://twitter.com/iamDequandre">(@iamDequandre)</a> – The ball looks so smooth coming out of Smith’s hands. He does a great job of dissecting the coverage and taking what the defense gives him. There was one throw where he put it on the money on a rollout to WR Jason Mingo in the first quarter.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Senior WR Jack Aldighieri <a href="https://twitter.com/jackaldighieri?lang=en">(@JackAldighieri)</a> – We were really impressed with the preciseness of his routes in the first half, picking and choosing his spots against the Trojan secondary, like on an out and up route. He was wide open for a 45-yard touchdown to tie the game at 21 with 5:24 to play in the second quarter.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Senior DL [player_tooltip player_id="153274" first="Ky" last="Tayo"] <a href="https://twitter.com/KyTayo">(@KyTayo)</a> – Tayo’s push against the Northwestern offensive line was impressive to watch in the first half. There were several times where run plays were not able to get past the line of scrimmage because of his impact.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Junior SS [player_tooltip player_id="146359" first="Evan" last="Javis"] <a href="https://twitter.com/JavisEvan?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">(@JavisEvan)</a> – There was one play where Javis did a nice job of defeating a block to limit the gain against the Trojans’ quick passing game.</li> </ul> Additional notes and standouts <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Northwestern senior DL Jahdonnist Morrison closed on an outside run almost immediately in the second quarter and showed good technique to defeat his blocker.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Spring Valley senior LB David Squires <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidSq30883468">(@DavidSq30883468)</a> made a great open field tackle on a run near the goal line to prevent a score in the third quarter.</li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Northwestern senior WR [player_tooltip player_id="89332" first="Christian" last="Watkins"] <a href="https://twitter.com/GerellWatkins">(@GerrellWatkins)</a> was wide open on a rollout pass play in the left corner of the endzone to extend the Trojans’ lead to 28-21 in the third quarter.</li> </ul>