PITTSBORO — The ground wasn’t safe for the Jets Friday.
On its homecoming night, Northwood (2-3, 2-1) ran all over its rival Jordan-Matthews (2-3, 1-2) in a 48-0 rout.
The Chargers just kept feeding junior running back Robert Tripp who rushed for 224 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
“The game plan was do what we do,” Northwood coach Dalton Brown said. “That was our focus all week. It was getting back to running the football and stopping the run.”
Following a long opening kick return from sophomore Raje Torres that set Northwood up in Jordan-Matthews territory, Tripp found an open hole and turned it into a 41-yard score on the first play from scrimmage.
He added six more runs of at least 10 yards, including his 24-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that put the Chargers at 48 points.
“The middle would open up, and eventually, I couldn’t get past the second level that much,” Tripp said. “Once I hit it outside, that’s when I could typically beat the second level.”
After Tripp’s first score, the Chargers piled it on, finding the end zone twice more in the first quarter and entering halftime with a 28-0 lead.
Northwood rushed for 155 yards in the first half thanks to contributions from Torres and junior quarterback Grayson Cox. Early in the second quarter Torres pulled off a 39-yard rush highlighted by numerous broken tackles and changes of direction, which exemplified just how much Northwood was able to get whatever it wanted on offense.
To add insult to injury, the Chargers threw the ball just five times in the first half (eight attempts the entire game), and came away with four completions, including a 17-yard gain to Torres and senior receiver Isaiah Blair’s first touchdown catch of the game on a 15-yard connection. The only incompletion in the first half was a dropped touchdown from Blair who was wide open in the end zone on a flea flicker.
“I wish we would do a little more passing, but it feels good when I get the ball,” Blair, who finished the game with two catches, 50 receiving yards and two touchdowns, said.
Defensively, the Chargers lived in the backfield, coming away with 12 negative plays.
Senior AJ Rhone-Mason, described by Brown as one of the three “dogs” on the defensive line, recorded two sacks and led the Chargers’ run defense to allowing just 19 net yards on the ground. The Jets averaged less than a yard per carry and pulled off only two runs over 10 yards in the entire game.
“We did our thing out here, and we executed well,” Rhone-Mason said.
Said Brown, “When they’re firing off the ball, they’re one of, if not, the best defensive lines in the conference. When they play like it, it’s good. We just have to get it consistently, and we got it consistently tonight which was really nice.”
Northwood’s defense also came away with three turnovers, including second-half interceptions from senior Beau Harvey and sophomore Farrell Blackburn and a fumble recovery in the third quarter.
The Chargers secured their first shutout of the season which was their first shutout since beating Jordan-Matthews 49-0 last season.
“Our defense has played great all year long and kept us in games when the offense is kind of in neutral mode and not moving,” Brown said. “It showed again tonight when we put everything together.”
For Northwood, Friday night’s win was another bounce back game following the disappointing 41-6 loss to Southeast Alamance the week prior.
Although the Chargers haven’t had the most ideal start to the season, they’ve shown that bad nights don’t keep them down for long. It first appeared when Northwood responded to two straight blowouts against non-conference opponents with a convincing 33-13 win over North Moore in the first conference game.
But with just five games left to push for the best playoff positioning possible, including tough bouts with Seaforth and Cummings, the Chargers have to keep responding for multiple weeks in a row.
“From here on out, it’s a championship game,” Brown said. “We need a little bit of help to do what we want to do in the conference, but we can only control what we can control and that’s to win each and every game from here on out.”
With regard to Jordan-Matthews, the last few weeks have been a struggle with injuries and a lack of offensive production.
The Jets didn’t have senior linebacker and tight end Rashaad McSwain and sophomore receiver and defensive back Namir Wiley against the Chargers, which are two solid athletes who could have made a difference on both sides of the ball.
Health will be the biggest key for the Jets as they try to make a playoff push in the final five games of the season.
