Westfield football invites Terrell Academy to the Hornets’ Nest in first round matchup

It’s been three years since the Westfield Hornets (8-2) hosted a playoff game, but they’ll get back in the swing of things as the Terrell Academy Eagles (6-4) come to town on Friday.

Terrell Academy comes from District 3-3A where they placed fourth; Tiftarea Academy (1st), Deerfield-Windsor (2nd) and Valwood (3rd) are the teams above them, and Deerfield-Windsor gave the Hornets’ one of their two losses in the regular season.

Here are three things to watch:

1. Ground and pound

A big emphasis in the preview story against St. Anne-Pacelli was how much they like to run the football. That’s even more true for the Eagles.

Terrell Academy’s offense averages 294 yards per game, and 252 of that comes on the ground. They also have two 1000-yard rushers: Sophomore quarterback Bryson Peachey (1049 yards, 14 touchdowns) and senior running back Ty Thomas (1019 yards, seven touchdowns).

Peachey has only completed 29 of his 65 pass attempts on the year (44%) while throwing for five touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s also only thrown double-digit pass attempts in two games (8-of-13 against Deerfield-Windsor and 5-of-12 against Tiftarea).

Peachey is very small for the position at 5-foot-8 and 163 pounds, which may be why he’s listed as an athlete. However, what he lacks in size he makes up for with speed.

The Eagles ask him to run a lot of option plays, and when he keeps the ball he has house call potential if he hits open field.

Thomas has above-average speed and finds his lanes. Sound tackling is a must with him, as he’s known to bounce off of tackles to keep going, or shake arm tackles as he’s going down the field.

2. Keeping Gay safe

Protecting the quarterback is always a big deal, and it might not be as hard to do it against Terrell Academy as it would be against other teams.

The Eagles have tallied nine tackles for a loss and eight sacks on the year, which averages out to less than one a game in each of those categories.

Only two of the Hornets’ opponents in the regular season had less (Brookwood: Four TFLs, no sacks; Pinewood Christian: Three TFLs, six sacks).

It still won’t be a walk in the park, but it won’t pose the same challenge as some of the best defenses in the GIAA that Westfield has faced this season.

3. Protect the Nest

A good indication of championship teams is how they play at home. If you’re going to be the best, you have to protect your house.

Last year the Boston Celtics (2024 NBA champions for those who don’t know) were a stellar 37-4 where they won by an average of 15.2 points.

The Hornets are obviously not on the level of NBA champions, but they have still been very good at home.

They went 5-0 in the Hornets’ Nest in the regular season, and only allowed 39 points for an average of 7.8 (including a shutout against Calvary Christian).

Some of that is due to them playing some of their weakest opponents at home (Brookwood, Pinewood Christian and Calvary Christian have a combined 3-26 record), but they also hosted Tiftarea Academy and St. Anne-Pacelli.

Another mark of a championship team is winning in hostile territory, which they did against Brookstone. Their losses to Deerfield-Windsor and First Presbyterian Day were by a combined nine points, too.

Kickoff is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hornets’ Nest.