Published: October 31, 2009 10:39 am      

Westwood stays in playoff picture

By SCOTT TYLER

Sports Editor



The window still is open for the Westwood Panthers.

Westwood defeated Fairfield Friday night 42-35 at Panther Stadium to stay in the playoff picture in District 20-3A.

“It was ugly, but it was a win,” Westwood head coach Kevin Anderson said. “We knew our backs were against the walls and we have taken it one game at a time.

“We need to take care of business again next week.”

Westwood (2-2, 5-4) still needs to win next week against Palestine to make the playoffs, but because of Friday night’s circumstances around the district, it is not that easy.

With Palestine losing to Athens Friday night, Westwood has to win next week against the Wildcats but also will have to win by a certain amount of points to make the playoffs. If Westwood wins, it will force a three-way tie with Palestine and either Athens and Brownsboro and then will come down to a point system for the last two playoff spots.

As for Friday night, Domanick Turner scored four touchdowns as the Panthers survived a winless Eagle (0-4, 0-9) squad.

“Fairfield is pretty talented for being 0-9,” Anderson said.

Turner scored a rushing touchdown in the second quarter and then caught three touchdown passes in the second half allowing Westwood to outlast Fairfield.

“Domanick is so explosive and has made some big plays for us this season,” Westwood offensive coordinator Roger Mays said. “We lean on him when we need a big play.”

Cameron Shead and Tevin Watson lead a resurgent Westwood running attack — the Panthers rushed for 301 yards on the night. Shead had a game-high 154 yards and one touchdown and Watson had 99 yards and a touchdown.

“We wanted to come out, control the clock and get some first downs,” Mays said. “We were successful running the ball and that opened up the passing game.”

Westwood went with the run game most of the first half and a 23-yard touchdown run by Watson and a 4-yard touchdown run by Turner gave the Panthers a 15-7 lead early in the second quarter.

After Fairfield tied the game midway through the second quarter on a Robert Durham 3-yard touchdown, Westwood turned to the pass.

The Panthers put together nearly a six-minute drive that was sparked by a personal foul hit against Watson on a third-down play in which the pass was incomplete.

But the penalty gave Westwood a first down and the Panthers marched the ball down the field and a 15-yard pass from Watson to Nick Morrow gave the Panthers possession inside Fairfield territory with two minutes left.

Fairfield forced a fourth down on the 14-yard line and the Panthers went for it. Watson dropped back and found Turner open in the middle of the field. He caught the ball for more than just the first down, as he went into the end zone untouched for the 14-yard score and Westwood took a 22-15 lead at the half.

It was Watson to Turner again early in the third quarter when Watson rolled away from pressure and found two receivers that were open deep. Turner cut in front of Morrow for a 35-yard touchdown catch and Westwood led 29-15, which stayed that way until a crazy fourth quarter.

Westwood got two interceptions by Travell Jordan and Morrow to help stop Fairfield drives.

But after Morrow’s interception with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, a bad snap inside the Westwood 5-yard line resulted in Fairfield’s Michael Mooneyham falling on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown and the lead was cut to 29-21.

Westwood nearly fumbled the ball away again on the first play of its next drive, but recovered the fumble before Fairfield could get to it. On the next play, Shead went around the right side, made a defender miss and then cut back the length of the field and outran the Fairfield defense for a 52-yard touchdown to give the Panthers a 35-21 lead.

Westwood tacked on one more score on another Watson to Turner connection, this time for 22 yards, and the Panthers led 42-28 with 1:54 left.

But Fairfield made it interesting, scoring in just over a minute on a fourth-down play as Tevin Green caught a 10-yard pass at the goalline and was ruled in the end zone before the ball was stripped away. The touchdown cut the lead to 43-35 and Fairfield looked to have recovered the on side kick but the Eagles were called offsides and had to rekick.

Westwood recovered the second onside kick to seal the win.





FAIRFIELD (0-4, 0-9) 7 8 0 20 35

WESTWOOD (2-2, 5-4) 7 15 7 13 42



WESTWOOD — Tevin Watson 23 run (Tyler Dillon kick)

FAIRFIELD — Anthony Price 19 run (Castillo kick)

WESTWOOD — Domanick Turner 4 run (Kendrick Reeves pass from Bryce Lyman)

FAIRFIELD — Robert Durham 2 run (Willie Tatum run)

WESTWOOD — Turner 14 pass from Watson (Dillon kick)

WESTWOOD — Turner 35 pass from Watson (Dillon kick)

FAIRFIELD — Michael Mooneyham fumble recovery (kick fail)

WESTWOOD — Cameron Shead 52 run (Dillon kick)

FAIRFIELD — Price 58 run (Castillo kick)

WESTWOOD — Turner 22 pass from Watson (kick fail)

FAIRFIELD — Tevin Green 10 pass from Tatum (Castillo kick)



Fairfield Westwood

First Downs 14 20

Rushes-Yards 34-256 42-301

Passing Yards 282 126

Total Yards 538 427

Comp-Att-Int 8-14-2 11-13-0

Punts-Avg 2-25.7 1-27

Penalties-Yards 4-45 5-30



Rushing — Fairfield: Tatum, 15-101; Price, 11-97; Durham, 8-58. Westwood: Shead, 16-154; T. Watson, 18-99; Turner, 5-44; Rodney Watson, 2-3; Nick Morrow, 1-1.

Passing — Fairfield: Tatum, 8-14-2-282. Westwood: T. Watson, 11-13-0-126

Receiving — Fairfield: Green, 5-93; Colby Green, 3-20; Evan Simpson, 1-8. Palestine: Turner, 5-76; Morrow, 3-19; Aaron Stanhope, 1-15; Des’Mone Williams, 1-12; Shead, 2-4.