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Westview stays alive at expense of Pioneers

Westview stays alive at expense of Pioneers

Posted: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 12:34 pm

By ALLISON JONES
Special to The Press
It wasn’t pretty, but a win’s a win. And, that is exactly what Westview needed Friday night to keep its playoff hopes alive.
The Chargers came into Friday’s contest on a three-game losing streak in which the Charger rushing attack only averaged 49 yards a game. But if there was a time to get going again, this was it with winless Gibson County coming in to town.
The running game was able to get back on track, accounting for 348 of the offense’s 410 total yards in a 41-7 win over the Pioneers.
Quan Williams led the offense with 210 yards on 22 touches and two touchdowns, followed by Hunter Moore (seven carries for 43 yards) and Ty Brown (three carries for 41 yards and a touchdown).
The offense kept the Pioneers out of the backfield, not allowing a negative yardage play until late in the fourth quarter.
“We executed our sweep pretty well in the first half and our off-tackle in the second half,” said Charger head coach Don Coady. “We were moving the ball pretty consistently throughout the night.”
But with the positives came plenty of negatives for the young Chargers.
Westview was penalized 14 times for 115 yards, four of which came on back-to-back snaps.  A couple of holding penalties brought back two Charger touchdowns, something Coady said his team will have to clean up moving forward.
“We managed to do what we had to do and finally put them away,” he said. “We blew some outstanding scoring opportunities along the way, but we eventually put enough points on the board to feel comfortable with the game in the fourth quarter.”
The Pioneers were playing for the upset on their opening possession of the contest, moving the ball all the way down to the Westview three-yard-line before the Charger defense came up with a big stop on fourth down.
On Westview’s resulting possession, Matt Castleman was picked off by Drew Scobey, giving the Pioneers the ball on the Gibson County 45. Three plays later, Pioneer quarterback Markee Brown called his own number, taking the ball 32-yards to paydirt.
Quan Williams and the Charger rushing attack answered on their next possession. After moving the ball down to the Pioneer four, Williams pushed his way to the two before being stripped of the ball. But luck was on the Chargers’ side as the ball landed at the feet of junior offensive lineman Ryan Austin, who jumped on the ball for the touchdown.
Brown would be the one to break the tie. After a 33-yard punt from Gibson County’s Scobey, Brown caught the ball running and never let up, going 46 yards for another Charger touchdown.
Castleman connected with Javier Gordon in the final minutes of the first half for a 51-yard touchdown, giving the Chargers a 21-7 lead to take into the locker room.
The second half was all about the Charger defense. After giving up 173 yards in the first half, the Westview defense limited them to only 26 yards in the second half.
The second half didn’t begin well for Westview’s offense. Penalties and turnovers hurt the Chargers on each of their third quarter possessions.
The opening kickoff was fumbled and picked up by the Pioneers at the Charger 44-yard-line. But, the struggling Pioneer offense was unable to move the ball, and the Chargers took over on downs.
The offense set up on its own 37, but after a quick first down by Quan Williams, the offense went flat. Four of the next five snaps were interrupted by penalty flags (four false starts and a delay of game), putting the Chargers at 2nd-and-30 from their own 33, which despite a strong 16-yard run by Williams they were unable to convert.
But the Charger defense refused to let momentum swing to the Pioneers, forcing another three-and-out. Brown caught the resulting punt and took it to the house, but Westview’s celebrations came a little too early. A holding call moved the ball back into Charger territory, where the offense was stopped once again.
After a slow third quarter, the Westview offense got back into a rhythm in the fourth with three more touchdowns.
Williams’ first touchdown of the game came in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter from five yards out, giving the Chargers a 27-7 lead after a failed Cal Bradshaw PAT.
The defense forced a three-and-out from the Pioneers on their next possession, but the Gibson County special teams decided to try to catch the Charger off guard with some trickery. Drew Scobey received the long snap and faked a behind the back pass before taking off through the middle of the field. But the Chargers were not fooled, stopping Scobey at the Pioneer 39.
Five plays later, Beau Kelly found the outside corner of the field and took it in for a three-yard touchdown.
Williams capped of the high scoring fourth quarter with a 20-yard run to provide the final score of 41-7.
The Chargers will have a tough test this week when they travel to South Gibson for the final game of the 2012 regular season in hopes of clinching a playoff spot. Published in The WCP 10.23.12