What We Saw: Westside 49, York 13

Brandon Stockdale November 10, 2023 @ 11:12 PM

ANDERSON | When you can have the balance of running and throwing like Westside had against York, more times than not it will be a good night for you. The Rams dominated the Cougars to advance to the third round, 49-13 on Friday night.   “Our guys have been playing hard since Week 1 and just proud of how we're trying to hit our stride right now. This is where you've got to hit it in playoff time. (I'm) just so happy that everybody's been doing great. We played a well coached team right there out of York and we did what we had to do tonight to advance,” Westside head coach Brian Lane said.   Demarco Evans would provide the first spark of the night as he picked up a first down on 4th down. [player_tooltip player_id='346189' first='Cutter' last='Woods'] connected with [player_tooltip player_id='139314' first='Josh' last='Williams'] on a skinny post as the Rams took a 7-0 with 8:51 to play in the first quarter.   Williams' impact would go beyond the offensive side of the ball. After Jamison Williams made a tackle for loss on the quarterback keeper, he followed it up with a fourth down stop as the Cougars tried to run a screen, giving Westside the ball back with 3:05 to play in the opening quarter.   The Rams' run game found holes against the Cougar defensive line throughout the night. Evans would punch it in for his first score of the night as the Rams went up 14-0 with 1:48 to play in the opening quarter.   [player_tooltip player_id='1157819' first='Sharode' last='Richardson'] is a solid north/south runner and he got in on the action with 9:02 to play in the second quarter as Westside increased the lead to 21-0.    “We've got a real balanced attack and when teams try to take away one (thing), the other group, they just show up so I'm happy with what we've been doing and want to continue on doing it,” Lane said.   Westside knew coming into the game that York wanted to run the ball, and once they got the Cougars out of their rhythm, they had to throw the ball. [player_tooltip player_id='139296' first='Jimmar' last='Boston'] (pictured above) came up with the first turnover of the evening with 7:47 to play before the half, leading to a [player_tooltip player_id='139310' first='Dee' last='Robertson'] touchdown run as it was all Rams at 28-0, 6:39 to play before the half.   The momentum would shift slightly towards the visitors from York County as Jonathan Tobias picked off Woods. Tobias made a great break on the ball as Woods tried to throw back across his body. That led to an impressive [player_tooltip player_id='208367' first='Ayden' last='Davis'] touchdown run on 4th down with 2:27 to play before the half at 28-7.   It didn't last long as Westside had a long kickoff return followed by a reception from Williams. Evans found the end zone for the second time as Westside took a 35-7 lead to the halftime  locker room.   “They outplayed us. They're a good football team and we made mistakes. We said we couldn't turn the ball over, we couldn't play behind the chains and we had to get a few stops on defense and we didn't do any of those three,” York head coach Dean Boyd said.   The second half was much of the same as Boston also picked up one other interception. Woods connected with Robertson and Richardson ran in for a touchdown to close the scoring.    Westside travels to Midland Valley next Friday night in round 3 of the Upper State 4A playoffs.

ANDERSON | When you can have the balance of running and throwing like Westside had against York, more times than not it will be a good night for you. The Rams dominated the Cougars to advance to the third round, 49-13 on Friday night.