Despite a second half slump by the North Pike High School football team, they were able to pull out a 41-28 homecoming win against Lawrence County Friday night.
The first half of the ball game was all North Pike.
The Jaguars (5-2, 1-0) forced Lawrence County (4-3) to turn the ball over three times at the very beginning of the game.
They forced fumbles on their first two drives, and linebacker Alex Breeland intercepted a pass thrown by Lawrence County quarterback Charl’tez Nunnery.
Quarterback Juwan Adams ran for a 15-yard touchdown with 8:09 to play in the first quarter.
“I thought the first half the defense played really good,” Jaguars head coach Chris Smith said. “They started off with three turnovers right off the bat with the two fumble recoveries and an interception. It should have been 21-0 in the first five minutes of the game, but we didn’t capitalize on offense on that.”
Later in the first quarter, Adams found his receiver Ladarius Dunn for a 36-yard touchdown pass, putting the Jaguars up 14-0.
At the 10:39 mark in the second quarter, Lawrence County faced a fourth and four at North Pike’s 36-yard line. Nunnery attempted to run the ball for the Cougars, but failed to convert and capitalize on what could have been a great scoring opportunity for his team.
Following the defensive stop, Adams broke away for a 57-yard run with 9:30 in the second, setting up senior running back Colton Magee for the five-yard touchdown run to put the Jaguars up 21-0 with 9:17 in the second.
The Jaguars followed up the scoring play with an onside kick. It was recovered by their freshman receiver Trey Nobles and gave North Pike a short field of 34 yards to work with.
The Jaguars would then pound the ball down field with their junior running back, Nakia Trotter, who went on to score off a 2-yard touchdown run with 7:51 to play in the 2nd. The kick failed, but the touchdown put the Jags up 27-0.
Lawrence County began a drive towards the end of the 1st half, only to have another Nunnery pass thrown deep and intercepted by North Pike’s Q-Mond Woods with 0:30 to play.
Lawrence County opened up the second half with an onside kick of their own and recovered it at the North Pike 47-yard line, giving themselves a huge swing of momentum to start the second half.
Taking advantage of the onside kick, the Cougars continued to give the ball to running backs Quitten Brown and Jarius Snell for big gains. Snell finally put his team on the board after scoring a 4-yard rushing touchdown with 8:54 in the 2nd, cutting the lead to 27-7.
However, North Pike quickly responded, and on the following drive Adams hooked up with Magee for a 44-yard touchdown pass with 7:53 in the 3rd, giving the Jaguars back their 27-point lead 34-7.
On their next drive the Cougars drove all the way to North Pike’s 14 yard line, but were stopped on 4th down, giving the ball back to the Jaguars with 1:24 in the third after another big defensive stop.
The Jaguars went three and out, and a bad punt gave the Cougars the ball at the North Pike 25-yard line. The short field led to a one-yard rushing touchdown by the Cougar’s Nunnery with 8:57 in the fourth, and cutting the lead to 34-14.
Nunnery also went on to complete a 2 yard touchdown pass to Lane Rutland, making the score 34-21 with 3:36 left to play in the game, and showing signs of a potential comeback.
North Pike had a trick play they decided to show off late in the fourth quarter, as running back Colton Magee completed an 18 yard touchdown pass to quarterback Juwan Adams, putting their lead back up to 41-21 with 2:41 to play.
North Pike goes on the road next week to take on their district opponent Purvis, kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
