By COREY KEENAN

For The Washington Daily News

 

Southside dropped both of their matchups with Northside last football season, but the Seahawks and head coach Jeff Carrow rolled over the Panthers Friday night, 40-8.

Southside opened with 32 unanswered points in the first half, while their defense held strong against the inferior Northside team.

The tone for the game was set early. On Southside’s first drive, they drove the field and scored on an overpowering 14-play drive. Dylan Lewis tallied 20 yards on the opening drive, including a nine-yard touchdown run five minutes into the game. A successful two point conversion from quarterback Johnny Sullivan to Andrew Baxter put the Seahawks up 8-0 and gave them a lead they would not relinquish.

The Seahawks broke open the game in the second quarter with continued success out of the backfield. After three short gains on the ground, Sullivan went to the air and connected with Baxter for a 13-yard gain. Donshea Miller broke off a 50-yard run through the left side two plays later to put the Seahawks on the three yard line. From there, Lawrence Brown easily punched in the score for his first of three touchdowns. A missed extra point attempt left Southside with a 14-0 lead.

The Seahawks relied heavily on their run game and scored all five of their touchdowns through Brown and Lewis. Carrow praised the backfield talents, but also contributes much of their success to the offensive line.

“We are blessed to have some depth in our backfield,” said Carrow. “They are all talented young men who play very hard for us. But the offensive line needs to get a lot of glory for this win.”

The Seahawks line caused problems for Northside’s smaller defensive front and saw just three tackles for losses. Northside head coach Keith Boyd said it was tough for his line to matchup against Southside.

“To be honest, they were just bigger and stronger than we were up front,” said Boyd. “They just moved us off the line on both sides of the ball in the first half. I was a little worried about our size, and that showed tonight. They ran straight at us through the tackles and we just couldn’t stop them.”

As Murphy’s Law states, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Northside saw that play out in the second quarter. A fumbled moved the Panthers back to the 19 yard line and forced the panthers to punt. On the ensuing attempt, the snap sailed over Ethan Gurganus’ head. To avoid a defensive touchdown, he guided the ball out of bounds for a safety.

On the free kick following the safety, two false starts moved the kick back to the 10 yard line. with a short field to work with, Brown and Lewis tag teamed the 25 yard drive before Brown pushed over the goal line from three yards out with three minutes left in the half. Brown scored the two point conversion to go up 22-0.

Northside scored their lone touchdown on the opening drive of the second half. Senior Rockne Butler capitalized on a broken play and picked up a fumble from Kemani Slade and took it 25 yards into the end zone. Butler punched in the two point conversion, but that would be all the Panthers could produce.

Northside fell to 2-1 with the loss and will take on South Creek next weekend in Pinetown. Southside now mirrors Northside’s 2-1 record and will play at Riverdale next Friday.