What We Saw: Northwestern 35, Greenwood 6

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>ROCK HILL</strong> | Northwestern did what the Trojans have been doing all season. Make big plays on offense, smother the opposition on defense and pop a play on special teams as they defeated Greenwood 35-6 on Friday night, setting up next week's Upper State semifinal at home against Gaffney.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“I'll take a 35-6 win every day of the week, you know? Against a third round team, a very, very much improved Greenwood team. We watched the film from the last two years and it really wasn't close. It looked like it was going that way this year.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You can't expect to have the kind of breaks we got the last two years every game three years in a row. We made a little harder on ourselves than we had to, at times but defensively, great job against a very good offense and offensively, (we) put some points on the board and had a few hiccups there but we were still able to move the football when we wanted to and special teams once again, coming up with big plays,” Northwestern head coach Page Wofford said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='605531' first='Will' last='Massey'] </strong>(pictured above) recovered a fumble as the ball was knocked loose after a completion. It did not take long for the Trojans to respond as <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='241044' first='Finley' last='Polk'] </strong>connected with <strong>Daniel Caldwell </strong>for a 6-yard touchdown reception to give them a 7-0 lead with 9:17 to play in the first quarter.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>That play was only the start for Massey as he finished the night with 4 tackles, one forced fumble and one tackle for the Trojans' defense. Whenever the Eagles tried to run it inside, Massey was involved.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“I was there when it happened. I feel like I was just there and reading the keys where I had to go and my coaches helped me get to that point tonight. My teammates were amazing. When things came down to it, we kept picking each other up and I felt like that was good, complimentary teamwork,” Massey said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Following a big punt return from <strong>Jonathan Spuregon</strong>, all it took was one play for the Trojans offense to score as <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='753896' first='Jayden' last='Nichols'] </strong>ran right up the seam wide open for a 47-yard touchdown reception from Polk. The two-point try from <strong>Zymier Gordon Miles </strong>was good as Northwestern took a 15-0 lead with 7:03 to play in the first quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>At that point, it looked like the Trojans were going to run away with it. But as the Trojans were headed into score, Nichols fumbled at the 5-yard line and Greenwood recovered with 3:25 in the first quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Eagles went for it on 4th and 1 deep inside their own territory and the Trojans slammed the door. Then Polk fumbled the ball, giving it right back to Chris Liner's squad. Neither team got anything out of it as the score remained 15-0.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“We talk about adversity – so what, now what? We created a lot of our own adversity tonight. I don't know if it was not having school today. They get off rhythm, not having school yesterday. Just a weird week with Thanksgiving. All in all, taking everything into account, we'll take a 35-6 win this week, next week and the next week. Just happy for it and proud of the guys,” Wofford said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1578842' first='Matthew' last='Fish'] </strong>knocked through an 18-yard field with 9:14 to play before the half as the Trojans' lead was extended to 18-0. Polk would punch it in from one yard out later to make it 25-0 with 6:46 to play before the half.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Greenwood's best drive of the half went deep into Trojans' territory with an incredible catch from <strong>Landen Still </strong>and an 11-yard run from Lewis. The end result? A fumble recovery from <strong>Dmitri Putman. </strong>And that's how the first half ended.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Massey, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1360210' first='Mason' last='Grier'], [player_tooltip player_id='1360156' first='Andre' last='Pickett'] </strong>and <strong>Danija McMullen </strong>harassed Greenwood quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1639712' first='Triston' last='Lewis'] </strong>on designed quarterback runs throughout the evening as the Eagles were held to 234 yards of offense.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>“They've been playing together for three years. They know each other. They know our defense, of course and the defense has evolved around them and helped them make plays. And they did it tonight. It's not really surprising that they had a tough time moving the ball on the ground against us,” Wofford said.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the second half, Gordon Miles scored a 37-yard score and Fish knocked through a 36-yard field goal to close the scoring. Greenwood would get a score from Lewis to <strong>Jayden Adams </strong>down the right sideline to close the scoring.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->