By Steve Swogetinsky/Special to The Star
PHILADELPHIA – Glen Sanders picked up his first victory as West Lauderdale’s head football coach as the Knights took a 14-7 victory against Neshoba Central on Friday night.
“It was a good first victory,” Sanders said. “I’m tickled to death. It was a tremendous effort on both sides of the football.
“We made a couple of adjustments at halftime that really helped us out in the second half. A couple of running plays made a difference. Penalties hurt us and we did have two touchdowns called back, but the guys sucked it up. When we needed it, we ate up a lot of clock in the second half and that made a lot of difference.”
It was a game that could have gone either way.
West Lauderdale had two touchdown plays called back; either of which might have opened things up for the Knights. In the end, the Knights had 123 yards rushing on 32 carries and 97 yards on five pass completions. Penalties were a problem for West Lauderdale which was flagged 10 times for 71 yards.
By keeping it close, Neshoba Central was in the game until the final second ticked off the clock. The Rockets rushed 39 times for 159 yards and completed two of 13 passing attempts 54 yards, giving them 213 total yards. Neshoba Central was penalized eight times for 40 yards but also had four turnovers.
West Lauderdale took the opening kickoff and apparently scored when quarterback Nate Hodges connected with Brandon Richardson on a 65-yard pass completion. But the play was nullified because of a holding call and the Knights punted two plays later.
The Rockets drove down to the West Lauderdale 28-yard line late in the first quarter before running out of downs. A 30-yard pass play from Hodges to Richardo Martemus gave the Knights a first down on the Neshoba Central 38. Two plays later, Hodges connected with Dennis Lewis on a 38-yard touchdown pass play. Hodges kicked the extra point and West Lauderdale led 7-0.
Before the second quarter ended, Neshoba Central had two possessions in West Lauderdale territory but walked away with no points.
The first was a drive that ended at the West 35. The Rockets’ Tyski Wells punted the ball down to the West Lauderdale 3-yard line. The Neshoba Central defense pushed the Knights back to their 1. That was followed by an illegal procedure call against West.
However, West Lauderdale pushed the ball back out to its 5-yard line and punted.
The Rockets took over on its own 45 and pushed the ball down to the Knights’ 20-yard line before running out of steam. An offside penalty and the West Lauderdale defense put an end to that threat and the score stood at 7-0 in favor of West Lauderdale at the half.
The Rockets fumbled the ball away on the first play of the third quarter. But two plays later, Terrence Steele intercepted a pass to give the Rockets the ball back.
The Knights forced the Rockets to punt the ball away four plays later and set up their second touchdown. West Lauderdale took the ball on the Rockets’ 45 and scored nine plays later when Lewis broke away around the right side on a 25-yard TD run. Hodges kicked the extra point with 4:59 left in the third quarter to give West a 14-0 lead.
Senior quarterback Jonathan Cantrell scored for the Rockets early in the fourth quarter when he faked a handoff and followed his blockers 23 yards for a touchdown. Caleb Crenshaw booted the extra point and the score stood at 14-7 with 11:37 left.
A West Lauderdale that would have settled the issue was called back by a penalty. The Rockets ended the game with three long incomplete passes.
Lewis was the leading rusher for West with 84 yards on 16 carries. Cantrell paced the Rockets with 52 yards on 11 carries.
The 1-1 Knights will host Gulfport next Friday. Neshoba Central, also 1-1, will host Philadelphia.
