By BRENDAN QUEALY

Traverse City Record-Eagle

ELK RAPIDS — The first offensive plays from scrimmage for both Elk Rapids and Westwood set the tone for the game in Saturday’s MHSAA Division-7 playoff contest.

The Elks’ starting quarterback, Skyler Spangler, went down hard and hit the back of his helmet on the ground, forcing him out of the game with a concussion on play one.

After Westwood (9-1) forced a three-and-out, Patriots starting quarterback Nathan Beckman broke right out of the pocket and found Ethan Burke, who dashed 62 yards up the sideline for the touchdown on their first snap of the game.

A successful two-point conversion put the Patriots up 8-0, and that was all the offense they needed as they shutout the Elks 30-0.

“This is a great team win,” Westwood running back Ashton Bergman said. “We kind of had some lows because we were in a defense we’ve never ran before, but I feel like we sharpened up and got it.”

After Burke’s TD, the Patriots scored with fewer than 10 seconds in the first quarter when Beckman hit Erik Anderson for a 40-yard touchdown.

Bergman finished off Westwood’s scoring output with a 64-yard touchdown in the second quarter and a 46-yard touchdown three and a half minutes into the second half.

Bergman was a man on a mission, piling up 200 rushing yards with two touchdowns of 36 and 46 yards on 15 carries. Dellangelo backed up Bergman’s big-time performance with one of his own, piling up 162 yards on the ground on 18 runs.

With the help of those two backs, the Patriots racked up 439 rushing yards.

Westwood head coach Scott Syrjala said he was impressed with the way his team executed throughout the game.

“We’ve got a great group of kids,” he said.

“Our quarterback has gotten a lot of credit as he should. He’s a smart kid. You talk to him, and he doesn’t care who gets the yards or who gets the credit. He just wants to win.”

With such a prolific run game, Westwood did not have to pass much. Beckman completed just two of three passes for 102 yards — Burke’s 62-yarder and Erik Anderson’s 40-yarder — giving the Patriots 541 yards of total offense.

“That’s the strength of our offense,” Syrjala said. “We don’t have just that one guy. When you’re a smaller school like us, you need everybody to be in it and be versatile.”

The Patriots will make another trip down to the Lower Peninsula next week as they will take on Lake City.