Water Valley outlasts Northpoint Christian in shootout victory
Published 11:04 pm Friday, September 10, 2021
Points were not in short supply and defense was optional at Bobby Clark Field on Friday when Water Valley hosted Northpoint Christian.
In what felt like a tennis match breaking out on a football field, the Blue Devils defeated the Trojans 76-49.
the Blue Devils (2-1) and the Trojans scored on nearly ever possession in the first half. Neither team wanting to break serve in order to keep pace. The first half ended with Water Valley taking a 42-35 lead into halftime.
“I don’t think I have (ever coached a game like that),” said Water Valley head coach Brad Embry. “They’re good at what they do. … We knew exactly what they were going to do and they scored 49 points on us.”
Jaden Morgan provided most of the offense for the Blue Devils, rushing for over 200 yards and two touchdowns.
Que Carothers rushed for two touchdowns, scoring on a nine-yard run to cap the Blue Devils first possession of the game. He followed that up with a six-yard touchdown run to open the second half. Jonathan Love also rushed for a touchdown on a 50-yard run.
Quarterback CJ Telford threw touchdown passes to Hayden Eubanks, Chance Dewberry and Sasa Freeman. Telford also rushed for three touchdowns.
“It was one of those deals where we liked the matchup, doing certain things,” Embry said. “We stuck with it and it worked.”
While Water Valley enjoyed success on offense at a torrid pace, so did the Trojans.
The Blue Devil defense did manage a couple turnover on downs in the first half, due to Northpoint Christian opting to rarely punt.
Not finding the end zone was a result that was not often for the Trojans, who scored early in their possessions with the help of 40- and 69-yard touchdown passes sprinkled throughout the first half.
Despite the inability to slow down Northpoint’s offense in the first half, the Blue Devils defense clamped down in the third quarter, causing back-to-back turnovers with an interception and a fumble recovery.
The offense capitalized, scoring 14 points off the turnovers to create some separation heading into the final quarter.
“We got to get better at tackling. We’ve got so much potential,” Embry said. “(Defense) did much better in the second half. Some of that is, it’s hard to replicate what they do. We can throw the ball, but we don’t do that.”
Water Valley scheduled the game against Northpoint, which was also the Blue Devils Homecoming, last Saturday after Bruce was forced to cancel due to going into quarantine with a COVID-19 outbreak.
Water Valley returns to the road next week, traveling to Calhoun City on Friday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.