What We Saw: Westside 35, South Pointe 14

Brandon Stockdale December 6, 2024 @ 11:50 PM

ANDERSON | [player_tooltip player_id='272705' first='Armoni' last='Weaver'] was the star of the night in Friday night's 4A Upper State Championship. He had three touchdowns, two on offense and one on defense as Westside dominated South Pointe 35-14, to advance to next week's state title – a rematch against South Florence.   “It's God's gift. I'm just grateful and thankful. I prayed for this game a lot of times. I've been out most of the season and I've just been praying and praying and God answered my prayers. I'm just thankful,” Weaver said.   Sharrode Richardson got the scoring started for Westside on the second play of the game with a 47-yard touchdown run, as the Rams took a 7-0 lead with 11:25 to play.    After a monster performance last week against Daniel, South Pointe was going to give it to [player_tooltip player_id='1157761' first='Mason' last='Picket-Hicks'] often. The Stallions went for it on 4th & 8 and was stopped short on the Hicks run on their first possession of the game.   The Stallions defense came up with a big stop on 4th down after the direct snap from [player_tooltip player_id='272708' first='Chamarryus' last='Bomar'] fell short of the marker.   South Pointe quickly answered with a 50-yard run from Hicks before [player_tooltip player_id='473002' first='Cameron' last='McMillon'] found him on a 3-yard touchdown reception out of the backfield, tying the game at 7 with 3:23 left in the first quarter.   Westside took the ensuing kickoff back to midfield. and the Rams capitalized with a short run from Richardson, giving them the lead back at 14-7 with 1:23 to play in the second quarter.   On 3rd & 7 with 9:30 to play before the half, the Rams made a nice tackle on a swing pass forcing a South Pointe punt. The Rams swarmed to the ball to stop Picket-Hicks as guys like Bomar, Dreson Evans, [player_tooltip player_id='346197' first='Jameson' last='Wilson'] were all over the place throughout the evening.    “Our defense has been like that all year. We don't worry about what outside people say. We know what we can do and at the end of the day, it's like I told them, you don't have to tell anybody if you're King Kong, they'll point at you. You don't have to say anything. Just play hard defense, play hard offense, play hard special teams and that's what we did to win,” Westside head coach Brian Lane said.   Weaver made the game-changing play with a 10-yard interception return for a touchdown to extend Westside's lead to 21-7 with 5:26 to play before the halftime recess.   He wasn't done making big plays before the half – he made a spectacular grab for 50 yards before [player_tooltip player_id='346189' first='Cutter' last='Woods'] went into the endzone from 1 yard out to take a commanding 28-7 lead to the locker room.    The second half was much of the same for Westside as the Rams made a goal line stand with 8:49 to play and Woods connected with Weaver for a 30-yard score near the end of the third quarter.   “He's one of the best athletes in the state so just to have him on the team. We worked all summer, all spring just on chemistry so I trust him and especially his brother, it's almost unstoppable. We've got players like 0 (Evans) and 6 (De'masya Dawson) and 2 (Richardson) on the field. It opens up the offense a lot and just super thankful,” Woods said.   Picket-Hicks would score on a 48-yard run to close the scoring in the fourth quarter.   “I'm just happy for these kids. They've been working hard this year and getting there is one thing and we know that South Florence is going to be there. They feel like we left a bad taste in their mouths last year so I know they're going to come out playing as hard. Getting (to the state championship) is one thing but we've still got another four quarters to play,” Lane said.

ANDERSON | Armoni Weaver Armoni Weaver 5'11" | 170 lbs | ATH Westside | 2025 State SC was the star of the night in Friday night's 4A Upper State Championship. He had three touchdowns, two on offense and one on defense as Westside dominated South Pointe 35-14, to advance to next week's state title – a rematch against South Florence.