The Patriots scored with 4:34 left in the fourth quarter when quarterback Loy DeVane galloped in from three yards out for the go ahead score and held on to win, 22-17.
“It’s a big win for us,” Randolph Southern coach Tim Goodin said. “Not only was this a region game, but in five years of us having a football team, we’ve never beaten them. So, yeah, it feels good.”
The Patriots opened up the scoring in the first quarter when DeVane ran in for the TD, which was also from three yards out as the two-point conversion failed.
Westwood, however, answered in the second quarter when the Wildcats’ Jordan Newsome intercepted a DeVane pass and returned it to the 10-yard line. Westwood QB Andrew Stargel scored on the next play to put the Wildcats ahead, 7-6.
Stargel would also score Westwood’s other TD, which came early in the fourth quarter to give Westwood a 17-14 lead thanks to an earlier Collin Enfinger FG from 39 yards out.
The Pats’ second score to go ahead, 14-10, however, was perhaps the most exciting moment of the game Friday night. That’s when — with just two seconds left before halftime — DeVane called a hook-and-ladder play to Patrick Jackson, who flipped it to Owen Kimbrel as Kimbrel rumbled in 30 yards for the electric score to send the Patriots into halftime with a 14-7 lead.
“Loy gets all the credit on that hook-and-ladder,” Goodin said. “He called it and it worked. it really got us excited going into the locker room.”
Randolph Southern has only had a football program for five years, and going into Friday night, the Patriots were 0-4 all time against the Wildcats.
