Westwood remains perfect, downs Cannon

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Westwood football wrapped up its regular-season schedule with an undefeated record Thursday evening.

Hosting Cannon County for their homecoming game, the Rockets took off early on the way to a 38-8 victory.

“We came out, we took care of business. Last year, we were pretty much in this same position,” Westwood coach Matt Mueller said.  We didn’t take care of business and we had to fight down to overtime and really barely survived a very good Cannon County team.”

The Westwood defense set the tone on the opening Cannon County drive when Berrot Clem recovered a fumble at the Cannon County 5-yard line for a scoop and score. Aidyn Jones proceeded to run it back into the end zone for the 2-point conversion to make it an 8-0 Westwood lead with 6:18 still to play in the first quarter.

After forcing a three-and-out on Cannon County’s next offensive possession, the Rockets capped off their ensuing drive with a 15-yard touchdown run from Jones. Jones took care of business once more on the 2-point try to make it a 16-0 game before the end of the quarter.

Westwood continued to push ahead as the second quarter got under way, starting with a 33-yard touchdown pass from Hayes Shemwell to Luke Christian to go up 22-0.

Cannon County’s next drive ended shortly after it started on another fumble recovery and the Rocket offense wasted no time from there. On the first play of the possession, Shemwell once again hit Christian for a deep touchdown pass, this time reaching paydirt from 59 yards out for another Westwood touchdown. KJ Buchanan delivered the 2-point conversion this time, catapulting the Rockets to a 30-0 lead with 3:54 left until halftime.

The following Cannon County drive once again ended on a turnover, this time courtesy of a Cason Francisco pick-six from 25 yards out. Weston Rodderick followed with the 2-point conversion to give the Rockets a 38-0 lead before halftime.

Cannon County avoided the shutout by returning an interception by Westwood quarterback Brodie Ahlijah 86 yards to the house with 2:57 left in the fourth quarter. The Rockets did not let Cannon County get any closer and finished the game up by 30.

Up next for Westwood (8-0) is the DRVC championship game. The Rockets will host Forrest, which defeated Cascade 28-14 in its week 8 matchup, next Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Westwood previously defeated Forrest 26-14 at Dyer-Bouldin Field on Sept. 4.

“We cannot take anything for granted,” Mueller said of next week’s championship game. “The good thing is any championship runs right through here.”