Westwood's Jayce Arseneau, left, rushes for a touchdown against Hancock on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, in Hancock, Mich. (Eddie O’Neill/The Daily Mining Gazette)

HANCOCK — The Westwood Patriots showed why they’re the No. 4 team in the U.P. as they came to McAfee Field and put the Hancock Bulldogs in their place with a 34-6 win Friday.

Their brand of football is a strong running game.

“That’s our bread and butter,” said Westwood head coach Scott Syrjala. “We are going to come at you at the line.”

The Patriots (5-1) followed their playbook on their first drive. They chipped away getting first down after first down which wound down the clock by about six minutes. It resulted in a eight-yard touchdown run by their senior-running back Zach Beckman.

The Bulldogs (3-3) then took over and went four and out.

After a deep punt and which pinned the Patriots on around their five-yard line, the Patriots their second drive, and it went far. On their second down, quarterback Zach Carlson found a whole in the Bulldogs line and went 95 yards down the line for another six points, and the score quickly became a 14-0.

“That really hurt us,” said Hancock head coach Ramon Sague. “To have him (Carlson) go 95 yards like that was real disappointing.”

In the second Carlson added another six to his tally with a 28-yard run, and the two teams headed into the half time with a 20-0 Westwood tilt.

“At half time, I felt like we left some points on the field defensively and offensively,” Sague said. “It should have been a one-score game.

The Bulldogs started off the second half on a brighter note with a touchdown. At 4-and-11, Hancock’s quarterback Brad Johnson stepped back and tossed a perfect ball to Easton Sintkowski that resulted in a 56-yard passplay touchdown.

“That was a positive but they (Westwood) just kept moving the chains,” Sague said. “They kept getting first down after first down, and we couldn’t get our defense off the field. They are a strong, strong offensive line and we knew that we had to stop the run, but we were unable to do that.”

Westwood scored 14 more points in the second half.

Despite the loss, Sague said he saw a lot of improvements from his team since they were shut out 47-0 to Negaunee a few weeks ago.

“I definitely saw improvement (on Friday) on the defensive side of the ball,” Sague said.

So there were some good things that came out of this game, and we are going to need to improve on it as we face Iron Mountain next week. We are going to have to play our best football.”

Westwood 14 6 6 8 — 34

Hancock 0 0 6 0 — 6

First Quarter

WHS — Beckman 8 run (2-point conversion), 6:45.

WHS — Carlson 95 run (2-point failed), 2:14.

Second Quarter

WHS — Carlson 28 run (2-point failed), 8:15.

Third Quarter

HCHS — Sintkowski 56 pass from Johnson (kick failed), 9:31.

WHS — Carlson 37 run (2-point failed), 5:37.

Fourth Quarter

WHS — Arseneau 6 pass from Beckman (2-point conversion), 9:10.