Northwestern rallies to beat Greenville 33-28, advances to state championship

Northwestern hadn’t trailed at all during its playoff run, let alone by double digits.

Yet the Trojans found themselves down 21-7 with about 10 minutes remaining in the first half, and had just punted the ball away to a Greenville team that had scored touchdowns on three of its first four possessions.

Northwestern needed a big play, and on the first play of that drive, sophomore defensive lineman Mason Grier delivered, intercepting a pass at the line of scrimmage.

“I just saw the ball,” Grier said. “And I caught it. That was it.”

That play galvanized the Trojans, who scored 20 unanswered points and forced another turnover to take a six-point lead into halftime, and ultimately held on for a 33-28 win over Greenville.

“Just do the system man,” head coach Page Wofford said. “Just play the system and we’ll be alright. Once we started doing that and started really establishing the run game and knew it was going to be a four-quarter game, we talked about it being a four-quarter game, we were able to do a couple little things here and there to get us going.”

Coming out of halftime, the onus was on the defense.

Northwestern remained ahead by five with just over a minute remaining in regulation as Greenville’s offense drove the field looking for a game-winning score. That’s when senior defensive lineman Khamari Morant intercepted a screen pass in the backfield to seal the victory for Northwestern. It was the fourth turnover forced by Trojan defensive linemen Friday.

“I’ll just say we did great with adjusting to them,” Grier said. “And we did great with the game plan this week. We just executed very well.”

The usual suspects made big plays when they had to on offense.

Sophomore quarterback Finley Polk scored two touchdowns through the air and one on the ground, while Turbo Richard (77-yard run), Elijah Caldwell (58-yard catch) and Greer Hopkins (72-yard catch) each had long touchdown plays to guide Northwestern to victory.

“Turbo had a big play, Elijah had a big play,” Wofford said. “This time of year, you need those guys, those players like that, to make big plays. Greer had a big play. If you were to circle guys on our roster you needed to watch out for for big plays. Those are probably one of the first three. If not, in the top five.”

Greenville started hot, but couldn’t maintain its strong play.

Greenville outgained Northwestern 398-333 in total offense. Bryson Drummond went 22-36 and 212 yards through the air, while the running game picked up four touchdowns.

But the Red Raiders left too many points on the field. After opening the game ahead 21-7, Greenville had just one touchdown, four turnovers, two missed field goals and a turnover-on-downs for the rest of the game.

“We just got to get better,” head coach Greg Porter said. “We made mistakes tonight that we usually don’t make. If you want to be a championship team, you can’t make those mistakes.”

Porter lamented his team’s missed chances, but was already intent on turning the page.

“Take nothing away from Northwestern,” Porter said. “They played well tonight. They made the plays when they needed to make the plays that we didn’t. But I’m really proud of our program. Who would’ve thought that we’d be in this position right here? I just hate that we got this far and to come so short because we ran out of time. It is so hard to get to this point. This is our second time being here, and I have to figure out what can I do as a coach to help our program get over this hump. I’m not satisfied.”

Northwestern advances to its first state championship game under Wofford. After winning the region championship, Wofford said that the standard of excellence for the Trojans was the state championship. Now, they have a chance to add another football state championship to the trophy case.

“It feels good to have the opportunity to go play next week,” Wofford said. “We’re going to play on a Saturday. We’re going to play in the ultimate game in the state championship series. You know, one more week of practice with these guys, and I wasn’t ready to see this senior class go. They were freshmen my first year. So to be able to put it together and win this game tonight the way we wanted, especially with the defense just absolutely doing their job and stepping up was outstanding.”

Northwestern advances to take on South Florence in the 4A state championship next Saturday. The game will be at Benedict College. Kickoff is a 7 p.m.