What We Saw: Northwestern 55, Rock Hill 7

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>ROCK HILL </strong>| <strong>CJ Broughton </strong>(pictured above) caught a 20-yard reception on Northwestern's first drive of the ball game. That would be a precursor of things to come as the Trojans scored seven first half touchdowns in a rout of Rock Hill, 55-7 on Friday night, to secure the region 3-5A championship.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Broughton took the place of [player_tooltip player_id='1267334' first='Kameron' last='Vance'], who missed the game due to an injury. He led the Trojans' in receiving with five catches for 105 yards as they scored points in bunches.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“Just our group of receivers, I feel like we're the best in the state right now. But it's us willing to work every week. It really shows, man,” Broughton said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>“He did what he was coached to do. We tell the guys all the time, you're one play away, score away and he took that to heart. He's had a great week of practice. He's been doing well all year for us. He came in tonight and did what we thought he could do and that just makes us deeper when Kam comes back – we'll have a whole stable of receivers. He's a senior guy who's played some defense for us, played offense and done well on special teams so (he's) an all around great player,” Northwestern head coach Page Wofford on Broughton</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Nigel Smith </strong>would score Northwestern's first points of the night with a 6-yard touchdown run, to make it 7-0 with 9:32 to play in the first quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rock Hill's best drive of the night was their first drive, which ended on a 4th and 6 as <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1592521' first='Kason' last='Canupp'] </strong>missed <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1809631' first='Connor' last='Clawson']</strong>, due in part to the pressure of the Trojan defensive front of <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='605531' first='Will' last='Massey'] </strong>(10 tackles) <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1360210' first='Mason' last='Grier'] </strong>(3 tackles) <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1360156' first='Andre' last='Pickett'] </strong>(5 assisted tackles) throughout the evening.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Finley Polk</strong> would score on a 2-yard touchdown run, extending the lead to 14-0 with 2:43 to play in the first quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><em>THE GAME WAS OVER WHEN….</em></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Zymier Gordon Miles </strong>recovered an onside kick after a Rock Hill unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Trojans drove it down quickly for Polk's second touchdown of the night, a one-yard rushing score to go up 21-0 with 11:31 before the half.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Things went from bad to worse for Rock Hill as <strong>Jayden Baxter </strong>read Kanupp's eyes with an interception on the next series. Northwestern quickly took advantage as Broughton caught a deep ball over the middle before <strong>Tadarrian Knox </strong>caught a pass in the left corner, as the Trojans went up 27-0 as the two-point was no good.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Trojans went into their bag of tricks as Polk threw it to <strong>Evan Harrison</strong>, who then threw it to a wide open <strong>Daniel Caldwell </strong>from 33 yards out to give the Trojans a 34-0 lead with 5:42 left before the half.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Polk added a 7-yard touchdown run and threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Broughton to end the first half scoring at 48-0. The Gardner Webb commit finished the night 14-of-16 for 175 yards and two passing touchdowns.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The second half featured a running clock as Canupp connected with <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1360412' first='EJ' last='Ratley'] </strong>for the Bearcats for their only score of the night. <strong>McCrae Knight </strong>hooked up with <strong>David Floyd</strong> for a 55-yard score to close the scoring for Northwestern.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“If we stick together and fight complacency and fight selfishness and hold ourselves accountable, the sky's the limit for this program.” Wofford said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->