Photo: Westbrook Christian’s Brody Blevins (left) attempts a pass as Glencoe’s Bronner McMurray pursues during the Warriors’ 35-10 victory on high school football on Friday, Aug. 30 at GHS. (Chris McCarthy/Messenger)
By Chris McCarthy, Publisher/Managing Editor
Sparked by a pair of big plays on special teams, Westbrook Christian opened the 2024 football season with a 35-10 victory over Etowah County neighbor and Class 3A Region rival Glencoe on Friday, Aug. 30 at GHS.
After the Yellow Jackets (1-1) drew within 21-10 on a 30-yard field goal by Conner Montgomery as the buzzer sounded on the first half, Westbrook pulled away over the final 24 minutes with 14 unanswered points. Seven of those points were the direct result of a blocked Glencoe punt that set up Westbrook at the Yellow Jacket 33-yard line. Four straight runs by quarterback Brody Blevins brought the visitors to the 1-yard line, where Blevins took it in for the score and an 18-point advantage with 2:15 left in the third quarter.
That sequence was most likely the turning point of the game.
The opening drive of the second half saw Westbrook move from its own 14-yard line to the 48, where on a second down and 9 Blevins raced 51 yards to the Glencoe 1. Blevins stretched the ball over the pylon in order to score the touchdown, but it was ruled that he fumbled into the end zone, where the Yellow Jackets fell on the ball. Offsetting personal foul penalties were called following the play, and the Warriors were further backed up for holding well past the original line of scrimmage.
Westbrook subsequently went three-and-out, and a short punt gave Glencoe good field position at the Warrior 40. But the Yellow Jackets gained only two yards on three plays, and the ensuing blocked point eventually led to an 18-point Westbrook lead that Glencoe could not overcome.
“I thought we did a lot of things well tonight, and I thought our kids played hard and Glencoe played hard,” said Westbrook head coach Steve Smith. “I thought our kids did a good job of keeping [Glencoe] out of the end zone in the second half. [Glencoe] had some sustained drives in the first half and did a really good job of controlling the ball and controlling the clock. But I thought our defensive coaches, coach (Adam) Brown, coach (Wayne) Lee and coach (Brad) Lowe, did an outstanding job in the second half of fixing those things and helping [the defense] get off the field. Offensively, I thought we were pretty efficient all night, as were our special teams.”
The Yellow Jackets had two more possessions following Blevins’ score, both ending without points. The first series was a three-and-out that was followed by Westbrook’s final score of the night, a 24-yard touchdown pass from Blevins to Titus Jones at the 10:27 mark of the fourth quarter. Read Barber pushed through his fifth PAT of the game to make it 35-10.
Glencoe’s final possession was a 12-play, 49-yard affair that drained off almost six and half minutes of game clock. But the Yellow Jackets came away empty on a fourth down and 4, and the Warriors ran off the final four minutes on the way to the victory.
Blevins finished with 250 total yards and four touchdowns. He rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries and was 12-for-18 in passing for 126 yards and two scores.
“For his first start, I thought Brody did very well,” said Smith. “He’s tough and he’s hard-nosed, and he made a lot of yards after contact to get some first downs and keep the drives going. But that’s exactly what we expect out of Brody; he’s a real competitor and a great leader.”
Brodey Wood added 42 yards on five carries, while Brodie Johnson caught five passes for 23 yards. Bo Kilgo, Maximus Jones and Beckham Hammontree each had two receptions.
Noah Wright, Brooks Whiteside and Jackson Ramsey each had 11 tackles, followed by Jones and Max Legg with 10 each. Wright also had four tackles for a loss, while he and Ramsey both had a sack. Jones had two pass break-ups.
For Glencoe, Bronner McMurray gained 115 yards on 11 attempts. Aiden Johnson was 4-for-9 in passing for 52 yards. Jake Boggs caught two passes for 11 yards. Johnson had six tackles, followed but Hayden Hudson and Gomez with five each.
Westbrook lit up the scoreboard on the second series of the game. Starting at their own 4-yard line, the Warriors used a 30-yard run from Blevins and a 21-yard Blevins-to-Wood pass completion to help Westbrook get to the Glencoe 11, where Blevins and Kilgo hooked up on an 11-yard TD pass at the midway point of the first quarter.
The Yellow Jackets answered on the next series, a 10-play, 62-yard possession that was polished off by Johnson’s 16-yard TD pass to Hudson. Montgomery pushed through the PAT to tie the game at 7-7 with 11 seconds to go in the opening period.
Westbrook responded with another Blevins touchdown pass, this time to Kilgo for 14 yards at the halfway point of the second quarter. The drive went 80 yards and featured two successful fourth down conversion attempts.
The next Warrior score came courtesy of special teams. On a Glencoe punt attempt from the Yellow Jacket 35, Westbrook blocked the kick and recovered the ball at the Jacket 2. Blevins scored on the next play, and Barber’s extra point pushed the advantage to 21-7.
The Yellow Jackets cashed in on their final series of the first half. With 2:27 of clock time to work with, Glencoe put together a 55-yard, eight-play possession that was finished by Montgomery’s field goal with no time left.
Glencoe head coach Scott Martin pointed to self-inflicted wounds as major reason why his team came up short.
“We had three personal foul penalties, and [Westbrook] scored on all three of the drives [the penalties] happened on,” he said. “Those are major penalties that are hard to recover from. You can’t make those kinds of undisciplined mistakes against good football teams and expect to win.”
Both teams continue region play this week. Westbrook hosts Saks, while Glencoe entertains J.B. Pennington.