Irmo football coach Aaron Brand couldn’t help but stand there and watch as Northwestern lifted the South Carolina 5A Division II state championship trophy. 

The Yellow Jackets entered last week’s title bout with redemption on their minds. After losing last season’s championship to the Trojans on a last-second field goal, Irmo was looking for revenge. 

Northwestern was having none of it, though. The Trojans took an early lead and never looked back en route to a 55-13 beatdown that left the Irmo team stunned. 

For the second straight year, the Yellow Jackets were forced to watch the Trojans celebrate a championship. For the second straight year, the team fell just short of winning its first football title in 45 years. 

“A lot of that stuff was uncharacteristic for us,” Irmo head coach Aaron Brand said after the loss. “ It's tough to battle back from a deficit like that, but we tried to show some character that second half. But when that clock starts going as fast as it did, it's tough to get back in.”

Irmo was plagued by turnover and penalty issues. Its offense failed to maintain drives and was forced to punt more often than not. The defense got worn down as Northwestern just kept scoring. 

By halftime, the Trojans led 49-6. A running clock was used in the second half, shortening the game by a significant amount and making it impossible for Irmo to make any sort of comeback. 

Northwestern scored every time it touched the ball in the first half. 

Quarterback Xavier Means had a huge game and scored the first three Trojan touchdowns with his legs. 

The fourth Northwestern touchdown came when Means threw a dot to receiver David Flood for a 16-yard score. 

The Trojans' defense scored their next two touchdowns. Tamarion Watkins picked off Irmo’s Dre Dopson and returned it 39 yards for a pick-six. On the following drive, Kameron Vance got through on a punt attempt, blocked the kick, scooped the ball and ran to the endzone for a touchdown. 

Northwestern scored one more touchdown in the first half, going on a four-play, 50-yard drive in the final two minutes. Means scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the game, pushing his way into the endzone from one yard out. 

 ”When you run into a bus all like that and you keep having mistakes on top of mistakes, these guys and coach Wofford go all the way to capitalize,” Brand said. “They've been doing it all year. They've been capitalizing on other teams' mistakes, so that was our primary concern. We didn't want to come in here and self-destruct and make the mistakes that give them easy field position, and those guys stayed in a great field position all night.”

Northwestern had time for just one touchdown in the second half. Means threw his second passing touchdown of the game with a 10-yard strike to Kameron Vance. 

Irmo scored one touchdown in each half. The first came off a Maleek Miller run from three yards away near the end of the first quarter. The second was off a 12-yard connection from Dopson to Ethan Singletary. 

Dopson finished the game 12-of-26 for 124 yards, the lone touchdown and two interceptions. He also had six rushes for 35 yards. 

Amire White led the team on the ground with 102 yards on 14 attempts. He had some success but was limited as Irmo was forced to pass more after going down by such a large margin. 

Despite falling short of their championship goals, Brand said he was proud of his players and the entire journey they went on this season. 

“ I don't want to take away anything that these guys have accomplished,” Brand said. “Losing the production we lost last year, I don't know if a lot of people expected us to be back here, but we expected to be back here. I'm super proud of these guys, and I want them to know that they got a home for life.”

While the loss will sting for now, Brand said he believes Irmo’s story is not over. He’s seen what the program has accomplished already and acknowledged that they still have a way to go. 

“Irmo’s got a chance to be productive for the foreseeable future,” Brand said. “We’ve got to find a way to finish, though.  Everybody's got to find a way to finish at every job they do. We’ve got to find a way to finish on championship Friday.”