H.S. FOOTBALL: Westview pulls away from Dresden
MARTIN – What’s been a close game in recent years was the opposite on Thursday.
Westview vs. Dresden was expected to be another close matchup in what’s become the traditional opener for high school football season in rural West Tennessee. Both teams had questions in key positions that left a good bit of doubt for both teams going into the game.
Coming out of the game – which was a 45-18 final in favor of Westview – it’s the Lions who seemingly have more questions while Westview seems to have shushed any doubters it had in the offseason.
“We had to be ready for just about anything they could bring at us,” said Westview head coach Don Coady referring to Dresden’s first-year head coach Derek Rang. “Spread [offense] teams typically run a lot of jet sweeps, and 3-4 [defense] teams usually stunt a lot.
“They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect them to do, much.”
If there were questions regarding the defense coming in, there shouldn’t be anymore. The Chargers forced six turnovers on the night, and two of them were interceptions returned for touchdowns.
“Our front four on defense turned out to be better than their front five on offense,” Coady said. “But that just comes from that unit being intact from last year and coming back with a lot of experience.”
The defensive line did a good job of getting into Dresden’s backfield and disrupting most of what Dresden tried to do all night – no matter if the quarterback was starter Quincy McDonald or backup Tyler Hutcherson.
“That’s just a decision we need to go ahead and make,” Dresden’s Rang said about the quarterback competition. “It’s not fair to either of them to keep this competition going, so we just need to make a decision and stick with it.”
Westview marched down the field on its first drive and scored on a two-yard run by Tyler Langley.
Dresden tied the game at 6-6 early in the second quarter, but things began to fall apart for the Lions soon after.
Westview scored on a Dallas Callins-to-Parker Beal touchdown pass to make it 13-6. Westview came up with an interception and quickly got down the field for another score – this time a pass from Callins to Jason Hicks for a 41-yard score.
J’von Cavitt gave the Chargers some early insurance when he intercepted another Dresden pass and returned it about 65 yards for a touchdown and a 26-6 lead at the half.
Dresden scored quickly in the second half when a pair of runs by McDonald gave the Lions a touchdown, but Westview put the game out of reach with two more quick touchdowns in the third quarter.
Coady warned his team of recent history when the Chargers beat Dresden in a close game a year ago then followed it up with a loss at Huntingdon.
“We’ve still got to get better,” Coady told his team.
Brandon Shields, 425-9751
More online
Read more about this game including postgame reaction from both sides on jacksonsun.com.