Reigning champs roll along

Westfield responded to the first touchdown scored by No. 5 Duncanville on Saturday afternoon. Almost 50 consecutive points later, however, the Panthers left the Mustangs in the dust.

In a rematch of last year’s Region II-6A Division I championship that was a seven-point decision, Duncanville hammered Westfield 70-28 at Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex.

The defending state-champion Panthers (12-1) advance to their eighth state semifinal in program history and will meet North Crowley (14-0), which defeated Allen 49-37 on Saturday.

Westfield (11-3), which had won 10 straight games coming in, including 77 points put up against Rockwall last week, fell short of its fifth bid to the state semifinals.

Highlights

Duncanville rode a bunch of points put up by its LSU recruits on its path to a 56-6 start to the game.

Future Tiger Dakorien Moore opened things up with a 42-yard reception from Keelon Russell just over a minute into the contest.

Westfield put together a positive response with Taji Atkins rushing in a 37yard score under a minute later. The Mustangs didn’t tie it, however, as the snap was high on the pointafter attempt.

It was LSU commit Caden Durham from there. The senior caught a 59-yard touchdown pass from Russell. Durham then scored consecutively on runs of 5, 12 and 72 yards, respectively.

Backup running back Jaqualon Armstrong scored on a 5-yard run.

Westfield then turned it over for the third time in the half and it cost them immediately as Alex January pounced on a fumble in the end zone.

Armstrong’s 1-yard TD at the 1:21 mark made it 49 straight Panthers points.

Westfield broke the streak with a 4-yard touchdown reception by Austin Abram from quarterback Miles Dent with 15 seconds left before halftime.

Atkins wasn’t done late. He scored from 63 yards out with 2:33 left.

What’s next

Duncanville hasn’t played North Crowley since a 40-14 non-district win in 2011.