DAVIE– For the first 30 minutes of their season opening 33-14 win, Western High School’s highly-rated offense looked every bit as good as advertised. The Wildcats, playing on a national stage at home against Johns Creek High School of Georgia, jumped out to a 33-0 lead at halftime and that turned out to be all they needed.
The game was a part of the Broward County High School Football National Showcase taking place this weekend, and Western displayed why they are considered one of the best teams in the area, with senior quarterback Collin Hurst putting on an absolute clinic.
Hurst had 215 of his 268 passing yards over the first two quarters to go along with three touchdowns, taking his career total to 69. He hit seven different receivers and kept the Gladiators’ defense off-balance by adding 41 yards with his legs.
To put into perspective just how dominant Western was, it scored on all of its five offensive possessions and had more touchdowns than Johns Creek had first downs in the first half.
“We prepared tremendously,” Hurst said following the win. “We were excited for this game, knowing it was on a national stage, national level and everything, getting attention from all over. So, we really dialed in in practice and really just put our best foot forward.”
It wasn’t just Hurst however that had an electric performance. All of Western’s stars, young and old made an impact in their hot start to the season. Senior receiver Santana Fleming finished with six receptions for 98 yards and a touchdown and the running back duo of senior Matt Wilson and sophomore Chance Washington combined for 95 rushing yards and a touchdown.
After their impressive start to the game, Western looked to put the finishing touches on things as they drove deep into Johns Creek territory.
Wilson took a handoff and dove for the end zone, fumbling the ball, which was recovered by the Gladiators. After that it was a much more labored effort from the Wildcats who were shut out the rest of the night and even failed to punch it in on their lone other red-zone drive of the half.
Meanwhile, Johns Creek continued to fight and earned themselves two touchdowns courtesy of a 2-yard rush by senior running back Harrison Smith and a 40-yard reception by junior wideout Taz Smith.
“It’s frustrating, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it,” Western head coach Adam Ratkevich said of his team’s play in the second half. “I mean the game plan was only to go out with one more series with Collin and then clear the bench and get the backups in. If we don’t fumble in the end zone there we clear the bench and we get all the twos in, right? But we didn’t do that and we came back out and we had another frustrating drive with some drops. At the end of the day. those guys played hard, they didn’t quit, hats off to them for that and like I said we got some things to tighten up.”
Despite the late-game struggles, Ratkevich knows the most important thing about Thursday night was notching the Wildcats’ first win of a challenging season that has state-championship aspirations, which they did, at times in brilliant fashion.
While the style points weren’t there for the full 60 minutes, a win on a national stage sets the tone for the program, who will look to build upon this momentum going into their upcoming matchup against Coconut Creek on Sept. 9 and a meeting with St. Thomas Aquinas to follow.
“The bottom line is that I’d rather have an ugly win than a pretty loss any day,” Ratkevich said. “And I’d rather be correcting mistakes from the standpoint of a 33-14 victory. So, we got some things to fix to be exactly who we want to be, but at the end of the day I’ll take it. I think we represented Broward County and the state of Florida well.”
