First Reaction North Greenville
In a classic get right game, the University of West Florida Argonauts got a big win on the road against North Greenville, 52-10, getting to 2-0 in conference to start the 2021 season. UWF has largely taken the first half to get warmed up and closed games out as time wore on. Not tonight, the Argos jumped out to early 21-10 lead in the 1st quarter on the strength of two Austin Reed TD passes. The defense opened the game with an INT on 3rd down that set up a 1 play 7 yard TD drive. North Greenville put together a nice answering drive taking it 65 yards for a TD, and started to get star Back Dre’ Williams more involved. Whatever momentum the Crusaders had quickly evaporated when Austin Reed came out and threw two passes for two completions and 75 yards and a TD.
West Florida kept the foot on the gas, scoring on their first four offensive possessions. While the defense forced a FG, two punts, and a turnover on downs in their next five drives. UWF took a 28-10 lead into halftime and poured it on in the second half. The defense got into the action when Anthony Johnson Jr picked off Kaelan Riley and took it back 46 yards for a TD after the offense drove down the field and came away with 3 points on their opening drive of the half.
First Fast Start of the Season
West Florida has scored early every game this season, but hasn’t played their best football in the opening halves of games. They trailed in each of the last two weeks at halftime, including 30-10 at Delta State last weekend, leaning on shutdown defense to get wins. This weekend the Argos got up 14-7 with just over 5 minutes off the clock and didn’t have to score again. The defense gave up 156 yards in that first half, but just one TD and came up with a sack, an INT, and a turnover on downs. Meanwhile the offense scored on their first four drives, racking up 28 points on 25 plays and 225 yards before sputtering a little bit before halftime.
This was the kind of start the Argos needed, they’ve played great second half football all season, now extending their 2nd half scoring advantage to 117-31 and 97-10 against D2 opponents. Their only second half TD against a D2 opponent was in garbage time against SBU in week 2, and have scored at least 20 points in the second half each week of the season. But despite that 2nd half dominance, the first halves have been kind of slow. That isn’t UWF football, they want to score early and often and keep the pressure on teams to keep up. Finally UWF was able to play that kind of football for four full quarters.
The defense started about as fast as you can, with MLB Shea Campbell picking off Riley on 3rd down and 3 on the opening drive and returning it inside the 10 yard line. Shomari Mason punched it in on the next play putting the Argos up 7-0 before a minute of game clock had elapsed. North Greenville reeled off their only really successful drive next going 8 plays 65 yards, with Dre’ Williams getting 3 carries for 21 yards and a score. The Argos came out and struck pay dirt on a beautiful deep ball from Reed to Coates for 69 yards. The clock was at 9:52 and the Argos had run 3 plays and scored 2 TDs. It couldn’t be much faster than that.
The Argos really salted the game away with two methodical drives on its next two possessions while forcing a FG and two punts. On the Crusaders second offensive drive, they nearly connected on a big play down the middle of the field to Dre’ Williams, but the ball was a little behind him and they were forced to attempt a FG two plays later. The Argos ground out an 11 play 75 yard TD drive topped off with an 8 yard TD to Coates, his second of the night. It was nearly another 1 play drive when David Durden made an impressive catch and run down the sideline that was called back for an ineligible man downfield. Instead the Argos ground out the Crusaders, gaining 24 yards on the ground including a 12 yard Mason run. Reed found Coates on a goal line slant for six. The next drive on offense had a similar tone 13 plays 67 yards, getting 19 yards from Anthony Johnson Jr on the ground, and Reed finding Durden in the flat uncovered after a NGU defender fell on the play.
With more than half of the second quarter left, the game had already entered blowout territory, and it was a balanced effort by both offense and defense for West Florida.
Offensive Playmakers on Display
UWF hasn’t had a 100 yard rusher since Wingate in 2019. 686 days later, Shomari Mason finally broke through tonight finishing with 10 carries 108 yards 2 TD, his third 100 yard performance as an Argo. For weeks he has been on the verge of breaking a big run, and finally hit the big play on the ground that has. Shomari took the ball up the middle on 4th and short and broke away for a 57 yard TD, which put the score at 52-10 in the 4th quarter.
Mason wasn’t the only offensive playmaker who looked good tonight. Rodney Coates had his second game with at least 120 yards and 2 TD. Finishing with a team leading 6 receptions 123 yards and 2 TD through the air. Coates also had a huge explosive play on one of his scores, taking his first target of the night 69 yards over the top of the defense. Coates beat his defender and ran away from the secondary after the catch.
Coates lead the way, but the other starters each caught a TD. Ashley (4 52 yards 1 TD) caught a really nice ball from Austin Reed over the middle for a 20 yard TD in the 4th quarter, and leading WR David Durden (4 33 yards 1 TD) caught a short pass near the goal line and walked in on a broken play in the 2nd quarter. Durden has scored in every game this season, and leads the team with 8 total TD through 5 games this season.
QB Austin Reed put up his best numbers since week 1, finishing over 63% completions and no picks. He came up just short of 300 with 294 yards on 33 attempts (8.9 YPA), while tossing 4 TDs to three different receivers. He came out blistering in the first quarter, finishing the period 6-6 116 yards and 2 TD.
Overall, the offense had a very efficient game while running fewer than 60 plays for the second week in a row.
Defense Dominated
On run plays, the Crusaders averaged 4.4 yards but fell short of their season average of 188 yards rushing. Part of this was because star RB Dre’ Williams was knocked out of the game with an injury, but also because they were playing from behind. Their officially 116 yard outing (146 excluding sack yardage) was their second worst rushing performance of the season, and that was only after 55 yards in the 4th quarter with the game well in hand. UWF also held the Crusaders below their 202 yard per game average passing coming into the game, allowing 175 yards through the air.
West Florida continues to stuff the stat sheet on defense, adding 4 sacks and 7 TFL this week, not quite keeping pace with their 4.8 and 8.3 per game average respectively. This weekend they did add two more INTs, one from Linebacker Shea Campbell, and the other coming via Freshman Cornerback Anthony Johnson Jr, who turned his 2nd INT of the season into a 46 yard pick six. It seems like just about every week Johnson has an impact play on defense. The defensive line lead the way this week, with 22 tackles 2.5 sacks and 5.0 TFL. Aidan Swett, Brandon Penerton, and Matthew Gotel all got on the board with sacks against the crusaders.
UWF held NGU to 291 yards of offense, the third time the Argos have held an opponent to 300 or less this season (SBU, TAMUC), and held the Crusaders to below their season average for yards and points.
