By Journal Sports Staff

ISHPEMING — Westwood head football coach Scott Syrjala couldn’t really pick which was more dominant, his offense or his defense, in a 46-0 drubbing of Hancock on Friday night.

The Patriots rolled up 411 yards offense, 389 of it on the ground as quarterback Nathan Beckman ran for four touchdowns and four two-point conversions and running back Ashton Bergman added in the other two TDs, also on the ground, and a PAT run.

Bergman finished with 149 yards on 19 carries, while Beckman added 15 carries for 122 yards to go with a 1-for-3 passing night for 22 yards, the catch made by Adam Hyttinen in the first half.

Westwood effectively played keep-away from Hancock, rolling up 27 first downs to just three for the Bulldogs.

“With the high-powered offense Hancock has — they’ve had at least three touchdowns every game and I think four or five vs. Negaunee — we wanted to try to control the game,” WHS coach Scott Syrjala said.

“It was a total team effort, both our offensive and defensive lines controlled the line of scrimmage.

“Two of our assistant coaches, Nick Messing and Bobby Zhulkie, they did a good job preparing our kids on defense, especially the secondary, and then the players did a nice job executing the game plan.”

Hancock managed just 35 yards offense, including 2 of 13 passing for a minus-8 yards, which includes sack yardage.

The Pats’ Erik Anderson made an interception that stopped the Bulldogs’ first possession.

That helped allow Westwood to score four first-quarter TDs and build a fast 30-0 lead entering the second quarter.

One TD in the second and third quarters rounded out the scoring as WHS rushed 55 times for 389 yards.

Next week Westwood (4-2) travels to L’Anse.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.