PORTSMOUTH — Stout defenses on the West Side haven't been uncommon over the past decade.
In fact, two of West's most successful groups over the past 10 years — the 2017 group that went 10-2 as well as the 2022 squad that finished 11-2 — had great to elite defensive play across much of its top 11 players.
If the start of the 2026 season is any indication, it appears that West fans, when the Senators eventually get their stretch of home contests rolling at The Rock, will get to enjoy yet another stingy defense.
One week after holding Fairland to just 149 yards of total offense and one offensive touchdown, Todd Gilliland's crew held Portsmouth to just 45 yards of total offense and collected 12 tackles for loss to go along with five sacks in a 42-0 shutout of Portsmouth Friday evening at Trojan Coliseum in Portsmouth.
For Gilliland, the numbers spoke for themselves in an out-and-out impressive performance by a West defense that routinely had no less than five to six players on a tackle on the majority of plays.
"We're very excited about the way our defense played," Gilliland said. "We were close to holding Portsmouth to negative yards through the night, and they have good players who have the ability to bust some big runs. That was evident on their kick returns a couple of times. We're very pleased with the way that our defense played. In two games, to only give up one touchdown, is extremely impressive. I'm very proud of the way those guys have played."
The evening was a much different story for Portsmouth, who only accumulated three first downs on the evening — one on a 30-yard run by Cameron Williams in the second quarter, one on a personal foul with less than 50 seconds remaining in the second quarter by West and one on Portsmouth's final drive of the game, where Williams found Fernando Poxes for a 16-yard reception on second-and-three.
Portsmouth, who had 45 yards on its 43 plays, gained a net total of one yard on the remaining 41 plays outside of Williams' carry and Poxes' first-down grab.
Those two plays, along with an 11-yard pass reception by sophomore wide receiver Mekhi Berry on third-and-15, were the only plays that went for more than four yards for the Trojans.
"We ain't there yet," Portsmouth head coach Brandon Sammons said of his team's progression.
Penalties were an issue for the Trojans throughout much of the final three quarters of football for Portsmouth.
After a strong hold by the Trojan defense where West failed to get points as Portsmouth held West at bay at the Trojan 9, three negative plays, including a four-yard sack by West's Tilton Rapp at the Portsmouth 12, forced the Trojans to punt.
It only took four plays and 46 yards for West to score as a personal foul was followed by a 15-yard run by Adkins and a 19-yard touchdown reception by Adkins from the arm of Carter Keyser, putting the Senators up 6-0 with 2:57 to play in the opening quarter.
It was part of an effort where Portsmouth garnered nearly three times as many penalty yards (130) as total yards, which Sammons was understandably disappointed in, to say the least.
"Some selfishness showed up (on Friday)," Sammons said. "There were some guys who wanted to do their own thing instead of the team thing, and that starts to spiral. We've still got a lot to learn and work on."
West, meanwhile, began to pick matters up in a fever pitch. Its longest drive of the game, a six-play, 69-yard march down the Trojan Coliseum turf, resulted in a 34-yard touchdown run by Anthony Bishop where the Senator senior broke no less than four tackles in keeping his legs churning the entire way down the right hash for the score. Bishop ran in the ensuing two-point conversion to push the West lead to 14-0 with 11:50 to play in the second quarter.
Then, following a three-and-out on its end, the Senators recovered by forcing a three-and-out of its own and followed that by putting together a nine-play, 60-yard drive that saw Bishop plunge his way in from a yard away. Keyser's 25-yard run and a personal foul following the end of the run set up first-and-goal for West on the drive.
Eli Blevins' successful point-after-try made it 21-0 West at the halftime break.
Of its nine drives, Portsmouth was forced into three-and-outs on six of them by the West defense. Rapp, along with Westyn Ratcliff, Austin Ramsey and Caid Cantrell, all had sacks with Ramsey notching two sacks to lead the group. A total of 16 different West players recorded a tackle in the contest.
"That's what our goal is — three-and-out," Gilliland said. "We want to limit their touches, then when we get the ball back, we know our formula on offense. That limits touches as well. If we can get a three-and-out and get the ball, it's going to cut a quarter down really quick. We're very happy with how that played out."
The defensive secondary backed up the strong play by the front seven by contributing to eight pass deflections, holding Portsmouth's Cam Williams to 7-of-19 passing for 34 yards in doing so. West defensive back Keagan Salem made a big fourth-down play when the junior stepped in front of a Williams pass and picked it off.
"Westyn (Ratcliff) was just all over the place at outside linebacker and made some big plays, along with Tilton Rapp inside with him," Gilliland said. "Games like these are challenges for your DBs. It's a spread offense. Guys are running around. Quarterback is running around all over the place. We did a great job of staying sticky. We focused on our coverage and our guys did a really good job of that. Our defensive line did a really nice job as well. We were rushing three, sometimes four guys and getting pressure, which made (Cam) Williams really uncomfortable. It was a great team effort on the defensive side."
Williams, however, was a bright spot for Portsmouth. Despite dealing with pressure throughout much of the game, Williams notched 53 total yards of offense between the run and the pass.
"He's a great competitor," Sammons said of Williams. "He rarely has a bad thing to say or a negative thing to say, even in the midst of what we've dealt with the last two weeks. He loves the game and he loves playing it the right way."
Starting with the football on its own 40 to begin the third quarter, West went on a lengthy 12-play, 60-yard drive that featured hard running from its standout quartet of Bishop, Ratcliff, Adkins and Rapp.
Of the 305 yards that West accumulated on the ground in Friday's victory, 218 of them came from the Senators' version of the Four Horsemen, including all 60 yards in the second-half opening touchdown drive.
West overcame two false start penalties and a holding call on the same drive to put up six on the board, thanks in part to two additional personal foul penalties by Portsmouth.
"I tell them all the time, 'The refs ain't your friends. They're not on your side. You can't worry about what they're doing or what they're not doing. You can control how you react and how you respond,'" Sammons said. "(On Friday), we did not do that very well."
Rapp ultimately finished off the drive with a 10-yard run around the left side to make it 28-0 West with 7:03 to play.
"On the offensive side, we've got some things that we have to clean up still," Gilliland said. "But I feel like we did what we wanted to do. Earlier, there was a drive or two where I felt that we made some mistakes. We'll focus on techniques, our blocking paths and things like that up front. But we got that stuff fixed and took advantage of some of their mistakes and were able to stretch it out there at the end of the second quarter and at the beginning of the third quarter and put it away."
"It doesn't always look pretty, and it's something that people in the stands may not see on TV anymore, but I feel like it's been very effective for us," Gilliland said. "Our guys are hard runners. They're tough. They're physical. They finish runs. We work on finishing runs. That does wear a team down. That's part of our offense. In the first quarter, it's three yards, three yards, three yards, then those runs turn into bigger runs each quarter. Then, late, we popped a 51-yard touchdown run and had big plays. That's a credit to all of those guys."
Braden Adkins then popped loose on the following series for a 51-yard touchdown run to help set the running clock up with West leading 35-0.
Then, after a personal foul put Portsmouth behind the sticks, another three-and-out led to West's final touchdown drive, a five-play, 48-yard drive that saw the Senators overcome two false starts en route to scoring on a three-yard touchdown run by Bradley Bishop.
The first-teamers for West didn't commit a turnover, and the Senators' only turnover in general was a fumble on the last play of the contest that Portsmouth recovered with just under four seconds remaining.
"One of the big things I talk about this week is taking care of the football," Gilliland said. "Our first group didn't have a turnover. Great ballhandling. That was one of our goals for the week and we did a good job at that. We've got to clean some stuff up in certain aspects of the game, but overall, I'm super proud of our guys."
West, who now sits 2-0 in 2026, turns its attention to a contest at Huntington Ross (1-1) on Friday, Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. Portsmouth (0-2) hits the road for the second time in three weeks to start 2026 with a interstate matchup at Greenup County (1-1) in Lloyd, Ky.
"This is the first time I've been 2-0 at West," Gilliland said. "We've either had a battle with Fairland or a battle with Portsmouth in Weeks 1 and 2, and we've never been able to put it together and get both of them. To start out 2-0 is a great way to start the season. It's exciting for our kids. We've got some tough battles ahead now. Huntington Ross will be a tough battle. They're a good program that's on the rise with a couple of good skill players. They play a similar style to us of physical football. We're going to have to be ready next week."
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