(Avoca) Westwood was up for the task, but AHSTW’s defense forced three second half turnovers and the Viking offense got explosive plays from Luke Sternberg and Brayden Lund in a 46-21 playoff victory on Friday night. Class A #4 AHSTW improves to 9-0.
The home squad had to do something they’ve rarely needed to do all season, which was fight back from a deficit. Westwood got a defensive stop on AHSTW’s promising initial drive. After the turnover on downs the Rebels mixed in a few different rushing options on their first possession and capped off the time consuming, scoring drive with a 14 yard Jackson Dewald run. AHSTW scored on their next series with a Kyle Sternberg keeper from four yards out to knot the game at 7-7 with :07 left in the 1st. Westwood came right back with a heavy dose of Dewald. The senior standout carried the ball on ten straight plays to set up Kyran Flowers with a five yard TD run. The second consecutive long scoring drive gave the visitors the lead back at 14-7 :27 remaining in the half. The Rebels were set to receive the 2nd half kickoff and were on the verge of a 14-7 lead at the break until AHSTW scored on a two play drive. Luke Sternberg ran for seven yards to move the ball to AHSTW’s 40 and then with :01 left in the half Brayden Lund got into the end zone on a 60 yard catch and run from Kyle Sternberg.
AHSTW kept the momentum going when they stripped the ball away from Westwood on the first play from scrimmage in the second half. The Vikings recovered their first of two fumbles and scored soon after on a 46 yard run from Luke Sternberg. Sternberg’s running ability allowed the Class A, District 7 champs to grab their first lead at 20-14. His 57 yard burst on the next drive allowed AHSTW some breathing room at 26-14 with 7:37 to go in the 3rd.
Westwood, whose offense was limited due to an injury to Jackson Dewald, kept battling. Coach Cass Burkhart’s squad got on the board early in the 4th when Dewald busted in from a yard out. It brought the Rebels back within a one possession game with 10:21 to play, but the Viking offense wouldn’t be stopped the rest of the night. Sternberg added rushing scores from three and four yards out as part of his 205 yard, four touchdown performance on 21 carries. Brayden Lund caught six passes for 107 yards and a TD. Kyle Sternberg went 11/17 for 164 yards. He tossed his 21st touchdown pass of the season and has no interceptions. Kyle Sternberg also picked up some key third down conversions with his legs and tallied 41 yards on the ground with one TD. Cole Scheffler jumped a floating pass and returned the interceptions 48 yards for the team’s final score of the night. Scheffler has a punt return TD, fumble recovery TD, receiving TD, and pick six on the season.
AHSTW allowed 142 yards rushing in the first half, but buckled down and gave up only 85 on the ground in the 2nd half. Jackson Dewald led the Rebels with 148 ground yards on 35 tries. The two time state runner-up wrestler returned from the halftime break with his right ankle heavily taped up. He played a majority of the 2nd half, but didn’t appear to be anywhere near 100%. The Rebels close the season at 4-5.
