Southland spoils homecoming for Westwood

CAMILLA — Sophomore tailback Jamaal Rice scored four times Friday night to lead the Southland Raiders to a 35-13 win over the Westwood Wildcats at Centennial Stadium.

Southland’s junior fullback Stephen Turton also added 142 yards rushing and helped keep the Raiders in control.

A large crowd had gathered to celebrate the Westwood homecoming, but the crowd was quiet when the hometown Wildcats trailed by two touchdowns with just over four minutes into the game.

The Raiders put the first touchdown on the board with a 5-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Alex Roach to Rice and led 7-0 with 8:52 left in the opening quarter.The play was set up by a 33-yard run from Turton.

The Wildcats could get nothing going on their first drive and punted after three plays. Rice took the first hand off around the right side for 66 yards and a touchdown to give the Raiders a 14-0 lead.

The Wildcats finally got their offense going with a pass from senior quarterback Collier Baggett to Chandler Rice that gave the Wildcats a first-and-10 at the Raider 20-yard line. Junior running back Reid Ford took the next snap down to the seven, but the Wildcats almost stalled. Baggett scored the Wildcat touchdown on fourth-and-1 and brought Westwood back into the game.

But the joy was short-lived. When the Wildcats kicked off, it went to Jamaal Rice, who picked it up and raced 80 yards for his third touchdown of the first half and the Raiders were back up by two touchdowns.

The Wildcats answered though.

Chandler Rice took the next kickoff and raced down the sideline breaking tackles to get all the way down to the Raider 20-yard line. Again on fourth down, the Wildcats scored with a one-yard touchdown run, this time by Reid Ford.

There was no more scoring in the game until late in the third quarter. The Raiders recovered a Wildcat fumble on the 26 yard line and Turton scored a few plays later on an 8 yard touchdown.

Still, the Wildcats had hopes when Kevin Hall took the kickoff to midfield and then a 12-yard run by Reid Ford and a facemask penalty gave the Wildcats a first-and-10 at the 24-yard line. But the Raider defense came up big and stopped the Wildcats.

The final score of the game was Jamaal Rice again. It was a 71-yard run in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach and killed any hopes Westwood may have had for a come back.

The win was just the second of the year for the young Southland team. They are now 2-6, while the Wildcats are now 4-5 on the season.