FOOTBALL | Raising the bar: Sam Williams-Dixon leads West Holmes to record-setting win

MILLERSBURG — The theme for West Holmes football this year has been 'raise the bar,' and for the 12th straight week, that is exactly what the Knights did.

West Holmes rode a 31-carry, 176-yard, four-touchdown effort by Sam Williams-Dixon to a 28-25 win over Tiffin Columbian to send the Knights to regional semifinal action next week against Rocky River, a 32-15 winner over Medina Buckeye.

"Our slogan this year has been 'raise the bar,' and I don't know anything that does that more than having the most wins in the history of the school," said West Holmes coach Zach Gardner, whose team ran its record to 12-0 with the win over the Tornadoes.

Dixon, the sensational sophomore who has rushed for 1,341 yards and has scored 30 total touchdowns this season, said he was simply doing what he could to help his team win.

"I just wanted to make a big play for my team," Williams-Dixon said. "I saw green grass. That's all I saw."

That big play came on the heels of a fourth-down stop by the West Holmes defense on the first play of the fourth quarter from the Knights' 39 yard-line.

Williams-Dixon took a handoff from quarterback Noah Clark, broke a few tackles and bolted 61 yards to the end zone to give West Holmes a 21-12 lead after Nick Ginsburg's conversion kick.

The Tornadoes struck right back, as sophomore Damian Brockington returned the ensuing kick-off 95 yards to pull Columbian back within 21-18.

That's when the Knights turned to another of the weapons in their arsenal, senior wideout Garrett Eastep. The sure-handed go-to player for the Knights all year was that and more against the Tornadoes, who ended West Holmes' season in 2020.

"Garrett is a dude," Gardner said. "He's the go-to receiver, and in big games, you want to go to those guys."

Eastep came up with one clutch catch after another, snaring seven passes for 110 yards, the biggest being the game-clincher of 35 yards to the Tornadoes 3-yard line with less than three minutes to play in the game. That one set up Willams-Dixon's fourth score, a 3-yard run, to give the Knights a 28-18 advantage.

The Tornadoes refused to back down, despite trailing by 10 and getting pinned back at their own 10 with time running out. Five plays later, after Brody Conley connected on a 66-yard scoring strike to Jack Koerper, it was 28-25 with 1:28 to play.

The Columbian hopes were dashed when West Holmes Derrick Patterson recovered the onside kick and the victory was secured.

"It is the best feeling in the world," Eastep said. "We've put in all this work, and I remember losing to these guys last year and it was not a good way to go out, so I worked hard with my team, with my dad and with my brother all off-season, and it paid off today."

Eastep said he and Clark have developed a great chemistry by playing together since third grade.

"We've got a connection. We just read things and get it done together," he added.

Clark, the senior quarterback, said he is blessed to have so many weapons from which to choose.

"We've got an offensive line that never quits. We got wideouts that will go up and catch passes for me, and we have Sam (Williams-Dixon) and Bret (Shearer), two of the toughest running backs to bring down in Ohio," Clark said. "We're loaded and I'm thankful for it."

Gardner felt the last drive of the first half, a 17-play, 67-yard drive, capped off by a 3-yard Williams-Dixon touchdown, turned things around. The drive took more than seven minutes and gave West Holmes some momentum going into intermission and to start the second half.

"We were finally able to get our offense going a little bit," Gardner said.

And the Knights took the opening kick-off of the second half and marched 53 yards in seven plays to take a 14-12 lead.

Columbian struck first following an interception of Clark, as Conley connected with Koerper on a 54-yard scoring strike on the next play for a 6-0 lead at 4:23 of the first quarter. The conversion kick missed wide.

After a West Holmes drive stalled in Tornado territory, the defense forced a three-and-out. The punt gave the Knights the ball near midfield, but a Knights fumble set up an eight-play, 56-yard drive capped off by a Conley 2-yard scoring scamper. The try for two failed and the Knights trailed 12-0 with 7:09 to play in the first half.

"This game was about us — our execution, our penalties and our turnovers," Gardner said. "That is something we need to clean up. We were fortunate to survive and advance with some of the poor play we had tonight.

"Kids are going to make mistakes in games, and it's just like life," he added. "They're going to make mistakes in life. But mistakes are not what defines you. It's how you respond to those mistakes, and we had some kids respond very well to some mistakes they made early.

"The old adage is to survive and advance, and that's what we did tonight. We made plays when we needed to the most. I'm so proud of our kids for fighting to the very end."

Columbian coach Judd Lutz tipped his hat to the Knights for their resiliency

"We did what we expected to do," Lutz said. "We frustrated their high-scoring, up-tempo, want-to-go fast office that was standing on the sideline watching as our kids executed really well. But they made enough plays down the stretch.

"Down two scores with two minutes to go, our kids never flinched," Lutz added. "That's the culture. We don't flinch."

The coach of the 7-5 Tornadoes praised the play of Williams-Dixon and the culture that Gardner has cultivated at West Holmes.

"They've got a great program. He's done a great job here," Lutz said. "They're on a pretty good run here."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Football: West Holmes gets narrow playoff win over Columbian