Westwood’s Taylor Dellangelo, left, breaks up a pass intended for Hancock’s Austin Salani in their high school football game played Friday night in Hancock. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo by Paul Peterson)

HANCOCK — Westwood knew it had a good shot at beating Hancock on Friday night in a West PAC Copper Division football game — if it could limit the time of possession for the Bulldogs.

That strategy worked perfectly.

The Patriots’ success was also assured because it had senior back Taylor Dellangelo to carry the ball.

The end result was a 36-23 win over Hancock.

“We didn’t do a great job on stopping their option game, but we played hard,” Hancock coach Ramon Sague said. “And Dellangelo just killed us.”

The Westwood quarterback carried 37 times for 209 yards and ran in four touchdowns, and as a passer, completed 8 of 9 passes for another 101 yards.

Chad Pohlman was Dellangelo’s top target, catching six passes for 87 receiving yards to go with a pair of 2-point conversions as Dellangelo was also successful on a PAT. Pohlman also ran in the Patriots’ second TD.

Westwood head coach Scott Syrjala said slowing down the Hancock one-two punch of Colton Salani and Austin Salani was key to his team’s fourth win in six tries this season.

“(Hancock) is a heck of a team,” he said. “I don’t doubt that we could see them again (in the postseason. We capitalized on a couple of good things and that was enough to get a win.

“This was a great game by our kids, especially after we faced a little adversity in the first half. It was a big win for our season and for our program.”

Westwood needed Dellangelo to offset the aerial work of Colton Salani, who was good on 18 of 31 passes for 242 yards.

“He (Salani) has had a great season,” Sague said. “He kept us in the game tonight along with Austin Salani. It was really a good football game.”

Hancock (4-2) took a 7-0 lead in the opening quarter when Colton Salani hit Austin Salani with a 44-yard touchdown strike. He also kicked the point after.

But the Patriots answered back with a 53-yard scoring march capped off by Dellangelo’s two-yard scoring run later in the first quarter. A long pass from Dellangelo to Chad Pohlman set up the score.

The Bulldogs responded with a scoring drive of their own in the second period, Austin Salani scoring from 9 yards out. Colton Salani added the 2-pointer for a 15-8 lead.

Before the first half was over, Pohlman scored his TD on an 8-yard run, and with the missing 2-point run, Westwood had pulled to within 15-14 at the break.

Westwood took over in the third quarter. The Patriots took the second-half kickoff and chewed up more than six minutes off the clock, with Dellangelo scoring from 15 yards out and adding the 2-point run to make it 22-15 WHS.

Before the quarter was over, Dellangelo ran in another TD, this time from 7 yards out, with Pohlman adding the 2-point run put the Pats up 30-15.

But the scrappy Bulldogs weren’t done yet. After an interception by Peter Anderson at the Westwood 26-yard line, Colton Salani scrambled in for a score from nine yards out. He passed to Austin Salani for the 2-pointer to pull Hancock within 30-23 with about nine minutes left.

The visitors from Marquette County put together another lengthy drive, culminated by one last Dellangelo scoring run of 3 yards, to bump their advantage back to two scores. The drive featured a pair of fourth-down conversions, including one on a pass catch by Pohlman.

Hancock’s last-gasp try to get back in the game ended in the final minute when the Pats’ Spencer Harvala recovered a fumble.