The West Haven football team was looking to bounce back from its only regular season loss over the last, two years when it visited the Hillhouse Academics at Bowen Field on Friday night. The Blue Devils got that bounce when Jordan Wetmore scooped up a fumble on the Academics’ first possession and raced 26 yards to put the Westies in the lead 7-0 in the first, two minutes of the game. The teams battled back and forth for the remainder of the first quarter until Hillhouse evened the game 7-7 on a 3-yard touchdown run with 11 seconds left in the quarter.
The Blue Devils responded quickly with Kyle Godfrey’s 34-yard touchdown run 2:32 into the second quarter and after the extra point by Chris Chance, the Westies held a 14-7 lead. As time was winding down in the first half, the Westies mounted a drive that was capped off by a 3-yard TD run by Godfrey. Latrell Best ran in a two-point conversion to put the Blue Devils up 22-7 with 36 seconds left in the half.
After a scoreless third quarter, the Academics were driving deep into West Haven territory to begin the fourth quarter. The Blue Devil defense came up with a huge stop on fourth and goal at its own 5-yardline but on the first snap on offense, the Westies gave the ball back to Hillhouse on a fumble at the 3-yardline. The Academics capitalized two plays later and tacked on the two-point conversion to make things interesting at 22-15 with 10:59 left in the game.
On West Haven’s next possession, Zach Conlan broke a 40-yard run to put the Blue Devils in great position at the Hillhouse 11-yardline. Chris Chance then took a handoff and slashed his way through the defense for the touchdown and after he added the extra point it was a 29-15 lead.
The Academics were able to drive deep into Westie territory again but the West Haven defense came up big with a Doug Johnson interception on fourth down at the West Haven 5-yardline with under five minutes left. After the Academics forced the Westies to punt the ball back to them, Zach Conlan sealed the victory with an interception on the next play to give the Westies a 29-15 triumph.
The Blue Devils will host the Xavier Falcons and celebrate Senior Night, in a critical SCC clash on Friday at 7 in Ken Strong Stadium.