Northwestern football cruises past Clover on homecoming to remain unbeaten

Four minutes were all the Northwestern Trojans needed to gain control of their homecoming game.

After forcing Clover to punt on its opening possession, Trojans quarterback Finley Polk crafted a five-play touchdown drive, and the Trojans wouldn’t look back, winning 57-23.

“Fifty-seven points against that team and the way they run the ball and control the clock is pretty good,” Trojans head coach Page Wofford said. “It says a lot about our offense and our defense for setting us up with some good plays. We are just happy to be 7-0.”

The Trojans (7-0), who are No. 2 in the Observer Sweet 16 rankings, hit a small speed bump in the third quarter, giving up two straight touchdowns, but Polk helped rally his team and get back to playing Northwestern football.

“One of the things we say is keep chopping,” Polk said. “No matter what happens, if we are up or down, it doesn’t matter, we are going to keep chopping. One of our [sayings] is, ‘What now?’ Same sort of thing tonight. So, what now? If a bad play happens, it’s not going to affect the next play.”

Polk finished the game with seven touchdowns, both through the air and on the ground. Polk feels his rushing ability helps keep opponents off balance. He surpassed the 100 career touchdown passes mark in this game.

“My offensive line has done a great job creating lanes for me to run,” Polk said. “And I’ve been blessed with a lot of good receivers and running backs to catch the ball in my career to help me get to that milestone.”

The Trojans have three more games on the schedule before the state playoffs. While the Trojans will likely be the favorite in all of those, Wofford isn’t looking past next week.

“We’ve got to come out and play great against Fort Mill, Rock Hill and Indian Land,” Wofford said. “Those are three good football teams all coached by good coaches. So, we’ve got to make our corrections in a hurry.”

Polk echoed his coach’s sentiments.

“We don’t play football math,” Polk said. “We don’t add up different scores to see if we are better than this or that team. We play great teams on Friday nights and we have to prepare the same way for each of them.”

Three who made a difference

Finley Polk, Northwestern QB: The field general for the Trojans did everything his coach asked of him and more. Wofford mentioned how selfless Polk is and he doesn’t care about his personal stats as long as the team wins. His seven total touchdowns certainly helped the Trojans win convincingly.

Jayden Nichols, Northwestern WR: Nichols seemed to be Polk’s favorite target on the field. He hauled in the first two touchdowns of the game, one going for over 50 yards.

Aaron Shealey, Clover QB: The Eagles quarterback, no matter the deficit, never seemed to lose his composure. His two second half touchdowns helped the Eagles cut into the Trojans’ lead in the third quarter.

Scoring Summary

Northwestern: 15 21 14 7 — 57

Clover: 0 3 14 6 — 23

First quarter

NW — Finley Polk 12 pass to Jayden Nichols (Matthew Fish kick)

NW — Polk 52 pass to Nichols (2-point try successful)

Second quarter

NW — Polk 3 rush (Fish kick)

C — Haven Maddox 32-yard field goal

NW — Polk 4 rush (Fish kick)

NW — Polk 11 rush (Fish kick)

Third quarter

C — Aaron Shealey 37 pass to TJ McCluney (Maddox kick)

C — Shealey 28 pass to McCluney (Maddox kick)

NW — Kameron Vance 4 rush (Fish kick)

NW — Polk 43 pass to Vance (Fish kick)

Fourth quarter

NW — Polk 4 pass to Daniel Caldwell (Fish kick)

C — McCluney 3 rush (kick blocked)