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By James A. McCray III
Content Manager, Prince George's County
Every team and every coach is familiar with the well-taught tune that offense sells tickets, defense wins champonships. However, what role does the special teams play in the harmonic melody that is a football game? In Friday night's SMAC football contest with the visiting Westlake Wolverines and hosting Chopticon Braves, special teams was the perfect tune for the Wolvernies accounting for 21 points en route to its 42-33 victory over Chopticon on its senior night.
Chopticon (5-3, 3-3 SMAC) had the game's first possession, but after a three and out, was forced to punt. Attempting to convert a sprint-out kick, the Michael Gilmartin punt was blocked giving Westlake the ball at the 8-yard line. Four plays later, Westlake quarterback Chris Istvan found Brian Richards for the first score of the game giving Westlake the 6-0 lead. Another blocked punt late in the second quarter led to a Devon Smith 3-yard touchdown run, and Gerrell Bledsoe returned a kickoff 68 yards to complete the special night for special teams.
"We have been known to [mess] up on special teams," Westlake head coach Dominic Zaccarelli said. "With the things that they do, we felt we could get some punt blocks, they run the scrum kick, so we kind of mixed it up. We came and then we didn't come because we knew there was potential there. It was kind of like rolling the dice. ... It kind of worked out there for us and obviously that set up two touchdowns for us."
Perhaps the biggest special teams play came in the third quarter. After Chopticon's Jimmy O'Grady returned a Smith fumble 55 yards for a score that cut the Westlake lead to 28-21, Westlake's Gerrell Bledsoe took the ensuing kickoff 68 yards down the Westlake sideline to give the momentum back to Westlake, and after a two point conversion, increased the lead again to two scores, 36-21.
"It did a lot," Bledsoe said of what the kickoff did confidence-wise for his team. "Everybody was putting their heads down - we weren't really putting our heads down - but we were thinking we have to come back. ... So I was thinking when I was running the kick back that we [had] to score, so we could bring our team back."
As the speial teams did its part, Smith did his for the Westlake offense rushing for 189 yards and four touchdowns on the night, including an 82-yard scamper midway through the second quarter that gave Westlake the lead 20-14, a lead it would not relinquish again.
"As a team we did a great job," Smith said. "Chopticon is a tough team and they are known for coming back. ... We just played with our hearts, played physical, and we just took the game."
And as special teams turned up big early and often for Westlake, Chopticon's quarterback-wide receiver combination of Leo Kyte and O'Grady were special in their respective right connecting on four passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns, all coming in the first half. The two touchdowns from the duo gave Chopticon the lead at 14-6 early in the contest. Kyte finished the game with six completions on 16 attempts for 186 yards before going out right before halftime after aggravating a prior ankle injury. Backup quarterback Tyler Summers came in and threw for 173 yards on four completions and two touchdowns, and O'Grady finished with 141 receiving yards and three touchdowns to go with his fumble return for a score, and also intercepted an Istvan pass on the night.
"We thought we could make enough plays to win," Chopticon head coach Tony Lisanti said. "Unfortunately, we made a few too many mistakes and it cost us, especially in the special teams. It is tough to recover from three big errors in the special teams. Offensively, we had a lot of yards. We can move the ball. ... But we felt like we could score enough points to win, the key of course is to keep them from scoring more. Special teams - for us to give up two drives inside your 10 on two blocked punts, and a kickoff return for touchdown, that is three touchdowns right there and we lose by one."
With the victory, Westlake improves to 7-1 on the year and 5-1 in conference play. The Wolverines are now focused on its big matchup with Lackey next week at home.
tmccray@digitalsports.com
Westlake 42, Chopticon 33
Westlake -- 6 22 8 6
Chopticon -- 7 7 7 12
First quarter:
W - Richards 4 pass from Istvan, 2:53 (run failed)
C - O'Grady 11 pass from Kyte, 6:13 (Gilmartin kick)
Second quarter:
C - O'Grady 39 pass from Kyte, 1:23 (Gilmartin kick)
W - Smith 19 run, 3:22 (run failed)
W - Smith 82 run, 7:52 (Richards from Istvan)
W - Smith 3 run, 9:38 (Richards from Istvan)
Third quarter:
C - O'Grady 55 fumble return, 2:38 (Gilmartin kick)
W - Bledsoe 68 kick return, 2:48 (Harris run)
Fourth quarter:
C - Delozier 66 pass from Summers, :21 (pass failed)
W - Smith 5 run, 10:15 (kick failed)
C - O'Grady 5 pass from Summers, 11:30 (kick failed)
Top individual performers
Rushing
Westlake: Smith 15-189, Harris 8-29
Chopticon: Dickerson 2-15
Passing
Westlake: Istvan 6-11-2 74
Chopticon: Kyte 6-16-1 186, Summers 4-9-1 173
Receiving
Westlake: Richards 3-37
Chopticon: Delozier 3-169, O'Grady 6-141
