Northwestern Routs Indian Land Behind Means's 7 TDs

ROCK HILL | On a night where Northwestern honored the 2015 state title team, the 2025 team took one step closer towards adding another one, winning the region 3-5A championship in a 51-13 rout over Indian Land, securing a first round bye and home field advantage as the playoffs kick off next Friday night.   It appeared that the game would go like many thought it would in the early going. Jayden Clyburn took the opening kickoff back 96 yards for an Indian Land touchdown to take a 6-0 lead 16 seconds into the game.   The Trojans looked unflappable from there. [player_tooltip player_id='232624' first='Xavier' last='Means'] (pictured above) connected with [player_tooltip player_id='1267334' first='Kameron' last='Vance'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1817848' first='David' last='Flood'] on quick passes before capping the drive with a 6-yard touchdown toss to [player_tooltip player_id='1823336' first='Jonathan' last='Spurgeon'] to make it 7-6, 9:24 to play in the opening quarter.   “One of the things we talk about before every game is do your job. Our job on offense is to try to score points. Special teams wise, we're going to take a hard look (at the touchdown) and see what happened but to get the ball right there and answer and just keep and answering and keep chopping and doing what we did was a testament to these coaches and players after a week off.    You don't know how they're going to respond so to come out there and do what they did is outstanding and to keep scoring and stuff like that, it's really a testament to our kids and the work they put in and the expectations we have for them,” Northwestern coach Page Wofford said.   The Warriors had a solid drive on the next series as [player_tooltip player_id='1467825' first='Matt' last='Kucia'] found [player_tooltip player_id='1822507' first='Kenneth' last='Wilson'], who high pointed the ball to make it third-and-short. [player_tooltip player_id='1042719' first='Hayden' last='Morris'] found a hole in the zone on a 14-yard gain for a first down before [player_tooltip player_id='1592288' first='Jamol' last='Horton'] hit a big run with good blocking up front from [player_tooltip player_id='1639806' first='Curtis' last='Sullivan'].    Morris caught a pass for a 23-yard gain, but an illegal shift negated the first down. Kucia then missed a wide open [player_tooltip player_id='1819992' first='Sequel' last='Patterson'] for a touchdown on 4th and 6 with 4:58 to play in the first quarter.   Means was nearly perfect in the air, finishing 27-of-29 for 311 yards and six touchdowns while also rushing for 80 yards and one touchdown. He did a good job of taking what the defense gave him – he hit shallow passes to Vance and [player_tooltip player_id='1820777' first='Evan' last='Harrison'] on their next series before connecting with Spurgeon on a 8-yard touchdown catch to make it 14-6 with 1:40 to play in the opening quarter. That was a common theme throughout the night.   “I trust my offensive line to give me time and really get the playmakers the ball. We do what we do. We don't focus on anything else, all we do is focus on offense. If we do our job, we know we're going to win the game,” Means said.   Things went from bad to worse for Indian Land as they fumbled the kickoff return, pinning them deep and [player_tooltip player_id='1283361' first='Jaylon' last='Richardson'] got pressure on Kucia for a safety, increasing the lead to 16-6 with 39 seconds to play. The Trojans' defense as a whole held the Warriors' offense in check throughout the night to the tune of 36 yards rushing and dominated things up front with [player_tooltip player_id='1820776' first='Kobe' last='Neely'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1149051' first='Kamerin' last='McFadden'] leading the way in tackles.   “If you get pressure, it's hard to play very well. So we were happy about that. That was kind of the gameplan going in and I was surprised we did it as well as we did because their offensive line is so outstanding. Hats off to Coach (Mario) Donato and his staff for doing what they did tonight and for the players executing the game plan,” Wofford said of his defense.   Means found Vance on a 3-yard touchdown catch on the sprint out to the right for his third touchdown of the night as the rout was well underway with a 23-6 lead with 10:48 left before the half. He found the end zone two more times – one on a 1-yard keeper and a 2-yard pass to Peyton Vining to cap a 37-point run for Northwestern to end the first half.   Vining kept the hot hand in the second half, finding the end zone two more times from 49 and 39 yards out in the third quarter. He finished with five catches for 112 yards in what was a coming out party for him.   “He can really run. He's a really good wide receiver and what defenses have been doing to us the last couple of games from the beginning of the season, it just wasn't going to open up for him but tonight, they gave us some things we liked to take advantage of. We saw it at halftime and said ok, if we get a chance in the second half, we're going to try to hit one or two deep on them. And fortunately, Xavier threw a very nice ball and Peyton doesn't know any better but to run under it and catch it, so great game for him and we're happy for it,” Wofford said of Vining's performance.   Kucia would connect with Morris for a 15-yard score with 3:35 to play in the game to close the scoring.

ROCK HILL | On a night where Northwestern honored the 2015 state title team, the 2025 team took one step closer towards adding another one, winning the region 3-5A championship in a 51-13 rout over Indian Land, securing a first round bye and home field advantage as the playoffs kick off next Friday night.