Behind 146 rushing yards and a touchdown from Zay Malcome, unranked Westminster dominated No. 3-ranked Cedar Grove 24-8 in the Class AAA semifinals Friday at James Hallford Stadium.
The Wildcats advance to the state finals for the first time since winning the 1978 state title. They’ll play Region 4 rival Blessed Trinity in next weekend’s final.
Not a lot of coaches call a fake punt on their own 34-yard line, on the fourth play of the game. But coach Gerry Romberg had told his team all week that, if Cedar Grove gave them the right defensive look, they’d fake it and it would work.
He was right, and it may have changed the game in his team’s favor.
“That gave us a huge momentum shift,” Malcome said. “They had all the momentum coming in; they’re on their home field. They had the swagger. We came in as an underdog; after that fake punt, that gave us the swagger that we could play with these guys.”
Play with them, they did.
Instead of a three-and-out, the Wildcats were suddenly on Cedar Grove’s side of the field. It only led to a field goal, but it put the Saints (11-2-1) on their heels, and they struggled to recover.
While Cedar Grove was only managing two first-half first downs – the last one coming with only a few seconds left before halftime, Westminster posted 138 rushing yards and 17 points, more than all but two of Cedar Grove’s in-state opponents scored in a full game this season.
Their first touchdown capped a nine-play, 61-yard drive, highlighted by Malcome runs of 21 and 26 yards to set up quarterback Rankin Woley’s 1-yard score.
Their second came after Malcome returned a short punt 30 yards to the Saints’ 9-yard line. Woley took it in on the first play, and it was 17-0 Westminster.
Cedar Grove had some limited success moving the ball in the middle of the field in the second half, but the Saints drives repeatedly stalled when they got near the red zone. Westminster added one third-quarter touchdown, and coasted home over the final few minutes with mostly backups in the game.
The defense gave up the shutout late, but it was an all-around dominant performance by the Wildcats on that side of the ball. Their bend-but-don’t-break philosophy never allowed the Saints to get their offensive footing.
“We wanted to take away the run,” Romberg said. “We figured that would make them one-dimensional. Once we got the lead, we were trying to give them some things in the run game, as long as we didn’t give up the big play.”
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