Westwood Wins Second Straight on Gridiron

The Westwood football team picked up its second consecutive win to open the season, recording a 22-6 home victory over Hopkinton in a Tri-Valley League game Thursday night at Flahive Field.

After a scoreless first quarter, and five consecutive quarters for Westwood without a completion, senior quarterback Will Smith connected with fellow senior Brett Egizi for a 29-yard completion.

Four plays later, Smith connected with Egizi again, this time for 17 yards and a touchdown as Egizi made a diving, one-handed grab on third down and five to give Westwood an early 6-0 lead.

"It was an amazing grab," Smith said. "I still have no idea how he came down with it."

Westwood added to its lead on the first drive of the third quarter when Sean Amaru ran in a 38-yard touchdown. Amaru finished the night with 164 yards on 21 carries.

Smith later capped off his night with a 32-yard touchdown pass to junior Glen Parsons and after the game discussed the difference between week one and week two throwing the ball.

"We definitely threw a lot more," Smith said. "They had some different coverages than last week and we put in a couple different plays that worked tonight."

Smith completed five of eight passes for 95 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

"We had a bit more balance tonight from our offense," said Westwood coach Paul Hallion. "It makes some other teams see that we really do have a good passing game."

On the defensive end, the Wolverines kept Hopkinton scoreless for the first three and a half quarters. They shut down a speedy quarterback in Mike Decina, who Hallion says in one of the best offensive players in the TVL, and held him to 9-22 passing and under 100 yards in the air.

Hallion said he saw no real difference in the play of his defense from week one to week two.

"Their offense just plays into our defense a little bit more," Hallion said. "We're more athletic at the standup positions so we do better with this type of an offense than the bulldozer offense Medfield runs."

Senior Anthony Antonellis had the first Wolverine interception of the year when he picked off Decina in the third quarter. In addition, Antonellis caught a seven-yard pass from smith on the following possession.

With the first two wins down for Westwood, Coach Hallion feels more than satisfied with his team's play and feels good moving forward.

"They made fewer mistakes tonight and committed fewer penalties and I was happy with the way we played and the way things turned out overall," Hallion added. "I'm happy about where we are now. We're going on the road and we just had wins against Medfield and Hopkinton. Not that you take any games lightly, but those are the ones that you know are going to be big games."

Westwood looks to open the season 3-0 when they travel to Ashland next Friday night.