Calhoun 19, Westminster 8

Riley, a dual-threat junior, completed 18 of 23 passes for 278 yards. He hooked up twice with Thomas Lester on post patterns for scores and sealed the win with a 55-yard touchdown pass to Malik Lawrence that put Calhoun up 19-0 in the fourth quarter.

That was plenty for the Yellow Jackets’ defense, which turned away every Westminster threat until late in the fourth quarter.

Westminster quarterback Rankin Woley threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Gillikin with less than two minutes to play to get the Wildcats on the board.

Kickoff was delayed over an hour by multiple incidents. It started with the Westminster bus being involved in a fender-bender en route to Calhoun, pushing the start time back 30 minutes. No one was injured in what was described as a minor incident. Then, one of the light banks went out during warm-ups and was unable to be restored. The game was played on a half-lit field and didn’t kick off until 8:45 p.m.

Both offenses moved the ball in the first half, but were turned away by goal-line stands. Westminster failed to punch it in on four tries from the Calhoun 1-yard line in the first quarter. Zay Malcome was stopped on a sweep on fourth down to give Calhoun an early momentum swing.

The Yellow Jackets marched back down the field to the Westminster 6-yard line, but missed a short field goal to keep the game scoreless.

Calhoun finally broke through late in the second quarter, with Riley hooking up with Lester on a 27-yard touchdown on a post pattern that gave the Yellow Jackets a 6-0 lead at halftime.

Riley hit Lester on another post pattern, this time for 44 yards, on the Yellow Jackets’ first play of third quarter.

Westminster finished at 12-2, the Wildcats’ most wins since 1978. Malcome finished  with 89 yards.