Messenger file photo by Chris McCarthy
By Ron Balaskovitz/Sand Mountain Reporter
Behind touchdowns from five different players, including two on defense, West End crushed host Gaylesville, 63-26, in the Patriots’ season opener on August 19.
Rockman Sainsbury and Kane Lawson each rushed for three touchdowns, while Jaxson Hamby scored a pair of defensive touchdowns.
“I thought we played well considering we laid a goose egg last week in the jamboree,” said West End coach Derrick Sewell. “We have so many guys playing who never had varsity experience before. So, it was good to kind of take a little bit from last week into tonight. It started with a good week of practice. We challenged our seniors late in the week because I didn’t like how things were going, and tonight, it was just fantastic effort all over the place.”
Sainsbury opened the scoring with a 15-yard run. Gaylesville scored the next two touchdowns to take a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter.
It was all West End from there on out. Tyler Jones hit Eli Golden for an 18-yard touchdown and then with Lawson from 48 yards out to make it 28-14 at halftime.
Lawson and Sainsbury each added rushing scores early in the third to stretch the lead to 42-14.
Sainbury capped his big night with an 11-yard touchdown, followed by Hamby adding his second defensive touchdown with just under five minutes left on a scoop and score.
“[Gaylesville is] a good football team [and] they were physical, but we made our adjustments,” said Sewell. “Offensively, the biggest thing was we felt like if we could keep them having to run sideline to sideline, we would have an advantage, and that’s what we did. We got our playmakers in space and forced [Gaylesville] to have to try and run us down.”
West End hosts Susan Moore on Friday, August 26.
