Westminster Christian stayed unbeaten in Class 4A, Region 8 play, as senior quarterback Brandon Musch accounted for five touchdowns and the Wildcats made a late defensive stop to earn a 35-34 win over Randolph on Friday at SportsMed Field in Huntsville.

Randolph’s William Mitchell connected with Noah Gaunt for a 51-yard touchdown with 1:15 to go to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 35-34. Rather than kick the extra point to potentially force overtime, Raiders coach David Lloyd opted for a 2-point conversion.

On the 2-point play, Mitchell struggled to corral a low shotgun snap, which forced the quarterback to run. Westminster’s Isaiah Shingleton tackled Mitchell to preserve the 35-34 lead, and Musch covered the ensuing onside kick. The Wildcats then ran out the clock.

“It was a fumbled ball on a bad snap, and I just went in and made the big play,” Shingleton said. “You know, this team can go far we just got to get mentally locked in.”

Added Musch, “I’m just so proud of the defense for not losing composure on that 2-point play. They got the huge stop to win the game.”

Did you know?: The victory snapped Westminster’s three game losing streak to the Raiders.

Star of the game: Musch accounted for 328 yards, with 213 rushing yards on 23 carries and three touchdowns. His TD runs covered 25, 6 and 62 yards, and he threw TD passes of 27 yards to TJ Carter and 22 yards to Kyle Everleth. He completed 10-of-14 passes for 115 yards.

Top play: Musch’s 62-yard run in the fourth quarter gave Westminster a 35-28 lead. He broke a tackle and outran the Raiders for the score.

Numbers game: Musch now has 11,455 career all-purpose yards, ranking fifth all-time in AHSAA history. He also moved into a tie for fifth in touchdowns accounted for with 153, pulling even with Alexandria running back Mac Campbell.

Stat sheet: Mitchell scored on two 1-yard runs and 14-yard run. He threw TD passes of 39 and 51 yards to Gaunt and also threw 2-point pass to Roan Campbell. … Carter intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter for Westminster.

Coachspeak: “This is why you go in early and you work, and man I’m just so proud of these guys as they never gave up. We need this big time, and we needed to fight and struggle and prove to ourselves that we could do it. This is just what you want as a coach, hard games that the guys never give up and win the moment.” – Westminster coach Louis LeBlanc

“Hats off to Westminster, they played a great game tonight. We came up a little short. We had our opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them and you can’t do that against good teams. We’ve still got a lot of season left, and we just have to get back to work. – Lloyd

He said it: “I’m just so incredibly proud of our entire team. We knew Randolph was going to play hard as we were very evenly matched with them and they play physical. They are a very physical team and are well coached. – Musch

What’s next?: Westminster (3-1, 3-0) will host Central-Florence next week, and Randolph (2-3, 2-1) will host Madison County.