Western’s solid first half holds up in win over Johns Creek to open high school football season
Davie Western was one play away from clearing out its bench. The Wildcats were in the red zone early in the third quarter against Georgia’s Johns Creek in its season opener Thursday as part of the Broward Showcase that is pitting seven of the county’s best teams against seven highly ranked out-of-state opponents. A touchdown would have started the running clock. Western’s backups would have taken the field the rest of the game.
That didn’t happen.
Senior running back Matt Wilson fumbled the ball at the goal line and Johns Creek took possession. Momentum shifted into the Gladiators’ favor the rest of the night.
So even though Western held on for a 33-14 win on its home field to begin a season with state championship aspirations, the second half left much to be desired.
“We came out in the first half and we played like a championship football team and executed the way that we were supposed to,” Western coach Adam Ratkevich said. “I warned the guys at halftime. We always talk about the fact that we need to come out in the second half and play like we’re losing by two. I think mentally, we checked out a bit in the second half. We left points off the board.”
But with that said...
“I’d rather have an ugly win than a pretty loss any day,” Ratkevich said. “I’d rather be correcting mistakes from the standpoint of a 33-14 victory. We’ve got some things to fix to be exactly who we want to be, but at the end of the day, I’ll take it.”
Ratkevich also hopes his team plays like the team that showed up in the first half the rest of the season. The Wildcats (1-0) scored on each of their first five possessions, starting with a 22-yard field goal on their opening drive and then scoring touchdowns on each of their next four drives to take a 33-0 lead at halftime.
Senior quarterback Collin Hurst threw three touchdown passes — one apiece to senior wide receiver Ben Sherota, senior receiver Santana Fleming and senior tight end Justin Tedim. Sophomore Chance Washington scored the final touchdown with a 20-yard run with 2:31 left in the second quarter.
“It feels great to start 1-0,” Hurst said, “but we left a lot on the field in the second half. We plateaued in the second half.”
Ratkevich called the second-half struggles “frustrating,” and that Western has “some things to tighten up” moving forward. Western has a bye week before its next game against Coconut Creek on Sept. 9.
▪ Life Christian (VA) 21, Stranahan 6: The Dragons (0-1) squandered multiple opportunities to take the lead in the second half and dropped their season opener at Western.
Trailing 7-6 with 8:08 left in the third quarter, the Dragons blocked and recovered a punt setting them up at Life Christian’s 27. Stranahan moved the ball into the red zone but missed a 29-yard field goal wide left.
The Dragons pushed into the red zone again early in the fourth quarter, but quarterback Rueben Toombs was intercepted in the end zone by Boston College commit Antonio Cotman.
Senior running back Sincere Rodriguez scored Stranahan’s lone touchdown on a 4-yard score late in the first quarter.
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 12:18 AM.
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