In a shocking reversal of the past few games, the Warriors handily beat the Manor Mustangs 28-16 in a quick merciless defeat that puts the Warriors 1-4 on the season and 1-1 in the district after a previous loss to McNeil in week three.

“We had a short week this week for practices,” Coach Dezmun Williams said. “But our players played their tails off today.”

To start the game, each defense took the field looking to kill and keep the other team to nothing as both teams exchanged clutch plays in the secondary. This cycle soon broke as Xavion Sutton ‘25 found the corner and put the Warriors within field goal range. After a few dropped passes, Manor forced a field goal and put the Warriors up 3-0 with half of the quarter to go. Unfortunately for the Warriors, Manor took the last drive personally, taking the rest of the quarter to methodically drive down the field and look for holes in Westwood’s man defense. These reads followed by a breakaway pass for a touchdown put the Mustangs up 7-3.

Following Manor’s last drive, the Warriors repeated theirs with a series of runs to the inside, putting Westwood in field goal range. Another defensive stop and a few penalties stopped the Warriors’ momentum and forced a second field goal, putting the Warriors just short of Manor at 7-6. But another breakaway play and three missed tackles soon continued the Mustang’s lead, putting them 14-6 with six to go in the half. To end the half, each team could not find the momentum needed to score with the Warriors’ defensive line putting pressure on the Manor quarterback and the Manor linebacker core shutting down any big plays. But soon, breaking the cycle, the Warriors found Drew Norell ‘26 in the endzone for a touchdown to put the Warriors back in striking distance of the Mustangs 13-14.

“I think, for us, [what has set us apart] has been gradual growth,” Coach Williams said. “Every week we have battled through injuries, playing different teams [and] different schemes, and we just [have done] our best to dot our I’s and cross our T’s these last few weeks.”

The power dynamic shifted in the second half as the Warriors found their groove on both sides of the ball. On the defense, led by Caius Coy ‘25, they held the Mustangs to zero points in the third quarter and forced a fumble and even more punts that gave the fired-up offense a chance to drive down the field and score 15 points throughout the third. This transition of power greatly affected the Mustangs on and off the field, as Manor slowed down their pace and began to slip up more and more as the half went on. Offensively, the story remained the same with strong runs by Sutton and tricky pushes up the A-gap by Norell which gave the Warriors their lead.

“I don’t think we had to change much — I think we just turned it up a notch,” Coach Williams said. “Our kids have shown up every day and put the work in to show up like Westwood should.”

This half was not all sunshine and open runs as the Warriors began slipping up more and more the larger their lead got; the Warriors began to line up more poorly, and more prominently, sent deep snap out of the back of the endzone, which gave the Mustangs two points and a chance to catch up to the Warriors late in the fourth quarter. Luckily for them, an interception by Westwood’s secondary put an end to Manor’s final push and ended the game 28-16 for their first win of the season. 

“Late in the game sometimes you see stuff on the field that you didn’t notice on film,” Coach Williams said. “Sometimes you just have to call that timeout to fix those issues during the game.”

The varsity Warriors will take the Hutto Hippos at Hippo Stadium on Friday, Oct. 4, for their sixth game of the season.