MATT TYSON

Staff Writer

Westwood Middle School football continued its dominant start to the 2026 season Thursday night.

Traveling to Woodbury to face Cannon County in their first road game of the year, the Rockets got going early on the way to taking a 30-0 lead before lightning in the area led to the game being called late in the second quarter.

Westwood’s defense set the tone early, with Walker Lovelace ending Cannon County’s opening drive on an interception. Lovelace followed this up by catching a pass from Brody Ahlijah on the Rockets’ ensuing possession and running it all the way in for a touchdown. Berott Clem proceeded to run the ball in for the 2-point conversion to give Westwood an 8-0 lead.

Cannon County proceeded to open its next drive on its own 30-yard line and got to around midfield before deciding to go for it on fourth down. The Rockets answered with yet another interception, this time courtesy of Eli Clem, to start the Westwood offense up at the 50-yard line.

Berott Clem went on to gallop into the end zone on the first play of the drive, with Ahlijah running it in for the 2-point conversion to make it a 16-0 Westwood lead with 1:01 left in the first quarter.

The Rockets continued to push ahead as the second quarter got under way, starting with a rushing touchdown for Brentley Brown with 6:26 on the clock. Berott Clem took care of the 2-point conversion, running the ball in to put Westwood up 24-0.

Ahlijah connected with Lovelace one more time before the game’s early conclusion, this time on a 40-yard touchdown pass to make it a 30-0 Rocket lead with 3:54 remaining in the half.

The game went into a lightning delay following Westwood’s unsuccessful 2-point attempt and was called not long after, bringing it to what would be the final score.

Ahlijah went 2-for-3 on passing for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Lovelace caught both touchdown passes to finish with 100 receiving yards.

Berott Clem rushed for 55 yards with one touchdown. Brown added 35 rushing yards with one touchdown.

Westwood (3-0) returns home to host Liberty at 6:30 p.m. next Thursday.