CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Kenwood High football hosted Northwest High in an inner-city showdown on Friday. With a win, each team could have kept their playoff hopes alive this season.
From start to finish, it was a back-and-forth contest, but the Knights walked away with the victory 25-19.
When the game kicked off, Kenwood wasted no time building a lead. After the Knights’ defense forced a turnover on downs to open up the first drive; Kenwood’s offense needed one play to go the distance and score the opening touchdown.
Keontay Showell found a lane to walk into the endzone for a 50-yard touchdown run. Northwest went on to block the extra point attempt, making it a 6-0 ball game.
On the next defensive drive for Kenwood, they forced a fumble in their opponents’ territory. The home team would take over on their opponent’s 25-yard line.
A holding penalty on first down made it seem as though the Knights weren’t going to capitalize on the great field position. However, Kenwood quarterback Jakoby Cox threw a bullet pass on third down that went for 20 yards and a first down.
The third down conversion set up the Knights on the 1-yard line. Kenwood running back Lamarcus Blackman wasted no time and punched it in for his first touchdown of the game. After a successful extra point attempt, Kenwood went up 13-0.
Northwest comeback
Northwest and their offense really started to find their rhythm at the end of the first quarter. After going down two scores, the Vikings did a nice job of mixing in the pass and run into their offense.
This led the away team to go 55 yards on a 13-play drive that led to a touchdown. On the final play of their offensive possession, Northwest quarterback Raymond Rodarte lobbed a goal line fade to his wide receiver Bobby Demyers to secure a touchdown on the drive. After another failed extra point, the game was a 13-6 ball game with Kenwood still leading.
The next score of the contest wouldn’t happen until there was 30 seconds left in the half. Northwest looked to tie the game before halftime, and that’s exactly what they did. After a short punt set them up in their opponent’s own territory, Rodarte completed two passes that set up the Vikings with a first and goal opportunity.
The quarterback found the end zone himself via a designed quarterback run and tied the game at 13 points apiece. Northwest overcame a 13-point deficit to put themselves back into the inner-city matchup.
Second half
As the second half began, each defensive unit solidified themselves on the field. While you look at the other side of the ball, each team struggled to move the chains on offense.
Here is how each drive finished during the third quarter of action; interception, punt, punt, punt and turnover on downs. It wasn’t until Kenwood High finally gained some momentum on offense that they were able to put themselves in field goal range.
As the first couple seconds of the fourth quarter of play began, Kenwood knocked down a 34-yard field goal to break the tie and move ahead 16-13.
The fourth quarter of action continued to progress, and things started to intensify around the five-minute mark in the game. Northwest was able to put together their first scoring drive of the second half after the team took over field position on their opponents 44-yard line.
Rodarte stepped up when he needed to most during this drive. After the team stalled out on the first two plays of the drive, he delivered a strike over the middle of the field on a crucial third down to pick up a new set of downs.
Also, this set the Vikings up for first and goal, which ultimately led to a goal line touchdown run by their power back Jewuan Moffet. With three minutes left in the game, Northwest led 19-13.
Down the stretch
Kenwood High showed true toughness and maturity after giving up the score. Their offense wasted no time as they looked to gain the lead once again.
After a facemask penalty against the defense brought the Knights to midfield, Cox stepped back into the pocket on the next play and delivered 50-yard strike down the left sideline. The pass hit wide receiver Christian James in stride and the freshmen walked in for six points. The extra point was no good bringing the score to 22-19 with Kenwood leading.
Northwest brought the ball out of their own endzone on the following kickoff to try and make a splash play. However, the return specialist lost the ball during the process of the play. The Knights came away with the turnover and took over on their opponents 31-yard line.
Kenwood made Northwest use their remaining timeouts, and eventually kicked a field goal to expand on their lead. The Knights led 25-19 at this point in the game, and only left the Vikings with 30 seconds to work with.
Northwest High made one last effort during those last 30 seconds of play, and actually completed a 50-yard pass to set them up for one last heave to the end zone before time expired. Nevertheless, a jump ball was thrown, and Kenwood deflected the pass resulting in the Knights coming away with a 25-19 win.
Coaches corner
“At the beginning of the year, we knew we were a young team,” said Kenwood Head Coach Jarhett Snead. “At this point in the year, we can’t blame youth and at some point, we have to grow up. Some of our guys grew up tonight, and that is one of the biggest takeaways.”
“My message after the game was the fact that they should enjoy this win, but we still have work to do. It wasn’t pretty, but we got the job done. If we want to pull out a win next week, we have to work harder, execute and have a different level of focus come Monday.”
Snead and Kenwood High football have a chance to clinch a playoff berth next week if they can come away with a win against Northeast High. As for Northwest, their last game of the season will be played at home against Springfield. Both of these games will take place on Friday, Oct. 28.
Correction: Keontay Showell and Lamarcus Blackman were misidentified in a previous version of this report. The article has been updated.