Important win for Westminster over defending NAC champs
If the third-year varsity football program at Westminster Christian goes on to become a perennial playoff qualifier, the Warriors will look back on Saturday's 14-7 victory over visiting Rockford Christian Life as a watershed moment in their development.
Westminster Christian (2-1, 2-1) knocked off the defending Northeastern Athletic Conference champion Eagles - a team that last year finished 10-1 and won the previous two meetings between the teams by a combined score of 115-7 - by playing hard-nosed defense and making a few big plays on offense that made the difference.
"It changes the tides of everything," Westminster third-year coach John Davis said. "We knew that we had to beat one or two between Hope, Marquette and Rockford (Christian Life) and that would define who we are. This game defines who we are. It lets us know we can contend and we can play."
The Westminster defense, led by Noah Anderson, won the turnover battle 3-1, including a pair of first-half fumble recoveries in its own red zone.
"This is a team that's given us a lot of problems in the past," Anderson said. "They've scored a lot of points on us. Our defense came out and we were more physical than them. I was proud of our whole defense."
The Warriors limited the Eagles to 149 total yards.
"Defensively, they came real hard off the edges, slowed us down, made us drive the ball," Christian Life coach Tony Ambrogio said. "Which is fine, but then we started a lot of second downs with second and long."
After a scoreless first half Christian Life's Bennie Radford returned the second-half kickoff 45 yards to the Westminster 45. The determined Eagles then drove 45 yards in 6 plays, culminating in a 26-yard touchdown run by 6-foot-4, 225-pound senior quarterback Adam Ambrogio. Jacob Goodrich's kick made it 7-0.
The Warriors countered two possessions later. Facing third-and-11 at the Christian Life 40-yard line, quarterback Scotty Graziano fired a 34-yard pass down the right sideline, where Connor James Albrecht outleapt a well-positioned defender to make the catch. Albrecht was injured on the play and did not return but is expected to play next week, Davis said.
The Warriors cashed in two plays later when junior running back Xavier Brown powered in from a yard out to draw his team within 7-6 late in the third quarter.
Westminster then went for the 2-point conversion and made it. Graziano, rolling right, spotted Anderson in the back of the end zone and floated a soft pass over two defenders toward the end line. Anderson made the catch of a slightly tipped ball for an 8-7 lead.
The Warriors fumbled at their own 25-yard line on their next possession, but the defense held on fourth-and-7 as Tannor Park broke up the potential go-ahead pass in the end zone.
Brown then staked the Warriors to some cushion on the next play from scrimmage. He took a handoff up the gut, hurdled a would-be tackler and raced 79 yards for a touchdown with eight minutes left in the game. The kick failed, leaving Westminster with a 14-7 lead.
"It was a straight run up the middle," said Brown, who rushed for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns on 10 carries. "My lineman, Zach Aters, got a nasty pancake block and I just jumped right over the top and was gone, right off to the races."
Davis made a gutsy call with under two minutes to play. With his team facing fourth-and-1 at its own 44-yard line, he went for it using a play requested by senior lineman Zach Anderson (6-0, 220).
According to Davis: "Zach Anderson pulled me (aside) and said 'Call if off. Tell Scotty to keep the ball and get right behind me.' "He's a tough kid. As soon as he said that I said I was like 'You got it. Let's do it.'"
Graziano gained the necessary yard on the sneak. Barely. He later said "there was nowhere to go because they brought the house."
The Warriors still had to punt once more, but the Eagles ran out of time after two incompletions.
It's a signature victory for Westminster Christian against a team that pounded them the last two seasons.
"My freshman year we lost 67-0 on our homecoming, so this feels a lot better," Graziano said.