FOOTBALL: West Laurens pounds Westside to wrap up school’s first 10-0 season, fourth region title

Thursday night’s region title game with Westside of Augusta set up as the perfect example of what West Laurens defensive coordinator Kenny Murphy calls a “two-chinstrap game.” In other words, one that’s so physical, defensive players are bound to need some spare helmet parts for a few in-game repairs. 

His assessment held true, as both teams lived up to their hard-nosed reputations. But West Laurens took things up a few levels on both sides of the ball, and left no doubt in a 27-3 win to finish the school’s first-ever perfect regular season, and capture a region crown that will go down as its fourth all-time. 

The Raiders scored a touchdown in every quarter, and kept Westside out of the end zone on three red-zone trips, allowing a second quarter field goal as the Patriots’ only points. 

Their unequivocal answer of the bell, thinking back, reminded a lot of the statement made by West Laurens’ last region championship team, which shut down Perry 36-2 back in 2019. 

“Really, it felt close the whole time, but it was kind of a dominating performance,” said Raiders’ head coach Kip Burdette. “They were in our plus territory all the time. Defense played outstanding, offense made some plays and we got this thing up 24 points, and that’s about all I can ask of ’em.” 

If there was anything with which to quibble, it’s that West Laurens lost the turnover battle, with a lone fumble knocked loose as De’Antre Charles recorded a sack at the home 21-yard line on the first play of the fourth quarter. 

But the potential opening for Westside to get back into the game, at that point down 17, turned instead to a chance for the Raider defense to re-establish its authority, and force another in a long line of missed Patriot opportunities. 

Maxx Chafin’s rush hustled an incompletion by quarterback Jaylen Stone on first down, Shannon Adkins blew up a read-option for a loss. Then another incompletion and fumbled snap sank the series on downs. 

“Coach stressed it all week: Being physical up front was the main thing you would need to win,” Chafin said. “I feel like we went out and executed again.” 

The Raiders turned around to drive 68 yards for a dagger touchdown. 

Ty Cummings, who rushed for 253 and busted big plays of 75 and 38 to score in the first and third, got loose on a 53-yarder to set up Adkins’ 2-yard run for the final margin. 

“I don’t know where we’d be without Ty,” said senior guard Trey Williams. “I know we’re a pretty good O-line, but Ty’s really the structure of this team. We made some of those little holes, and he gets through that hole, he’s got like one dude, he breaks that tackle, and he’s gone.” 

Westside pieced together a last-gasp drive that a West Laurens personal foul assisted in reaching the 15. But Leroy Mack’s sack preserved the Raiders’ touchdown shutout. 

Punts were exchanged leading up to Cason Pollock’s long-awaited kneel-down to run out the clock on the perfect season. 

Burdette partially dodged a postgame water bath before being mobbed by ecstatic players on the way out for handshakes. He offered a brief victory speech before Laurens County Schools athletic director Jeff Clayton dropped off the region championship trophy in the midst of the scrum, and several moments of mayhem ensued. 

“That’s something we’ve been working for for a while,” Burdette said, with the hardware clutched securely in left hand. “Looking forward to celebrating this one. Really proud of our kids and our coaches. They did a really good job tonight.” 

The battle of 9-0s, easily the biggest regular-season game in West Laurens program history, played out in about as ideal fashion as anyone could have scripted it. 

The Raiders, whilst holding their own in the constant struggle of defenses, hit a handful of explosive plays right when they needed them. 

Cummings expertly navigated traffic, and a key kick-out block from Grady Howell, on his way outside to find the clear and the end zone on West’s opening possession of the game. 

He’d outmaneuver the Patriots off a direct snap to conclude a gashing first drive after halftime, which took over half the third quarter off the clock before a devastating touchdown to put the Raiders up 20-3. 

The middle score, late in the second quarter, was one of two critical third-down completions on the night from Pollock, who put just enough air under a ball that cleared the reach of a man-to-man corner for a 63-yard touchdown. 

Juvon Hill high-pointed the catch, about midfield, and was off for the end zone. 

“I saw they were playing like a man, cover-2 look and I saw the way he played Juvon, and said if I can get it on the back shoulder, he can make a play,” Pollock said. “Their defensive front coming in, they were legit. My line, they balled out tonight. Juvon, he made a play on the ball, and the rest is history.”

Another massive throw, off the back foot while staring down double-barrel pressure, showcased poise and patience in the pocket as Pollock timed his release perfectly to find Cummings over the middle for 13, converting a third-and-long midway through the aforementioned clock-drainer. 

Cut the big plays out of the picture, though, and running it was a mostly uphill game against a Westside defense that certainly lived up to its half of the scouting report. 

The Patriots’ front, anchored by massive defensive tackles Blake Hinton and Brandon Lyons, was just as disruptive as West Laurens’ over the course of the night. 

“They’ve got some big boys,” Williams said. “One of them jokers is like 6-5, 315 pounds. Another’s like 6-2, 310. But we’ve had multiple guys we’ve had to go against. All the guys come together. We’ve got really good chemistry. No matter the size, we can always get under them and make a good play.” 

Amid a good number of plays going nowhere were just as many that did indeed get somewhere… usually to set up thirds-and-manageable on which the Raider O-line never blinked. 

“We’ve got big bodies for their big bodies, we move people,” Howell said. “That’s our job, man. We get it done.” 

“Both lines of scrimmage really did great tonight,” Burdette added. “That was a challenge to our offensive line, how good as they are on the defensive side of the ball… I thought our offensive front did a great job against them.” 

West Laurens forced punts on both Westside positions that ended in the first, but a second of those – pinpointed at the Raiders’ 13 by Shelton Freeman – led to a quick kick back that Joshua Crawford returned inside their 25. 

The Patriots, with the arrow of field position advantage tilting heavily their direction, proceeded to reach the red zone on consecutive possessions. But they came away with only three points total after penalties and snap issues backed them out of range for a touchdown. 

Freeman connected from 30 yards to salvage points on the first visit, but Jaden Stanley got a hand on his second try from closer in the next time down to send the ball tumbling wide and short to the right.

“I just timed it up right, I got back there and I blocked it,” he said.  

They would, somewhat oddly, concede a chance to drive the field for an answer facing a 10-point deficit with a minute and change left before halftime, letting the clock go with timeouts in their pocket after progress stalled with about 20 seconds to go near midfield. 

Synchronicity, for Westside’s offense, was a definite issue on an odd game night, off a short week of practice. The Patriots had trouble lining things up on a number of passing plays, even some of the simplest on swings from the backfield that were off-schedule both with and without penetration or pressure involved. 

“I want to really tip my cap to Coach (Gabe) Gay, Coach Murphy, and the rest of the staff tonight,” Burdette said. “We had ’em pegged out on offense. We figured out what they were doing. Coach Murphy did a good job of calling the game. Coach Gay did a really good job of getting ’em formationed up and schemed up, really good job.” 

The Raiders, intent on taking away the ground element of their balanced attack, held feature back Tamari Curry to under 50 rushing yards – in his first sub-100 game of the season. 

And their pressure, from the three-man rush to a variety of blitzes, was as menacing as it’s been all season. 

“We knew it was gonna be a tough game,” Stanley said. “They emphasized all week, if we don’t stop the run, and stop the pass, it’s gonna be a long game. We came out and we dominated.” 

Added Hill: “I love the way our defensive line and our linebackers and the DBs played. It all comes at practice. Work hard every day, and it’ll come.” 

The Raiders will have a few days’ wait to find out their draw in the first round of the state playoffs, but can be certain they’ll end up seeded somewhere among the top three in the bracket, after checking in with AAA’s third-best GHSA postseason ranking ahead of the final week. 

After a statewide open date, they’ll open a new chapter of their season with a clean slate at the SHU Friday, November 14. 

“We’ll find out who we play on Sunday and we’ll go from there,” Burdette said. “We’ll treat it like an off-week and get a little bit of prep done and probably let some injuries heal up. But I’m really looking forward to the next experience with these guys. It’s been fun so far… Four years in the making.” 

There was a lot to soak in amid the sea of folks that stayed to celebrate after the game. A sampling of other player comments gathered from the scene by WKKZ’s Lee Newsome echoed much of the same gratification that’s been a long time in the making. 

“It feels unreal,” said a slightly choked-up Adkins. “I was trying not to cry. I might cry later on tonight. It just feels unreal. I knew we had it, though.” 

“It feels amazing,” said Pollock. “We’re gonna celebrate this one. It’s gonna be a fun time” 

“It feels great,” said senior Evan Holmes. “We came in over the summer, a lot of hard work, a lot of hard practices, but we stuck it through. We’ve had a lot of hard seasons. Just coming through, being disciplined and keeping ourselves straight on the street, it pays off, just goes to show.” 

Cummings looked back the furthest of any to the earliest steps in this championship journey, and a 1-9 season the year Burdette took over as head coach in 2022. 

But that year’s crop of wide-eyed freshmen had dreams of doing something great when their time finally arrived. 

“I knew we were gonna shake back one of them days… and this is one of them days,” Cummings said. “I just love the way we stuck together and never gave up on each other, and never gave up on our coaches. We just stuck together, worked hard each and every day. And it’s for moments like this.”