By ROY LANG III, Journal Sports
Early in the second half, Quintavion White raced to the sideline and screamed, “They ain’t stopping me!”
The Northwood running back realized something special was brewing on his offensive line. His head coach, Austin Brown, knew it, too.
“We felt we could dominate them on the O-line behind our left tackle Big Shug (6-foot-3, 280-pound tackle, Jamarion Kennedy),” Brown said.
White scored four touchdowns and piled up 264 rushing yards – 210 in the second half – as the Falcons rallied past a game Airline squad, 35-28, at Northwood on Friday night.
“The O-line was doing exactly what they were supposed to,” a joyous White, aka “Q,” said. “I have a 3-star tackle (Kennedy). He was pulling every time, laying (the defenders) out every time. I was following him right up the center every time and we were gone. It’s our favorite play in the book.”
Northwood (2-1) broke a halftime tie with a 2-yard run from quarterback Mason Welch on the first possession of the second half, but Airline (0-3) used a pair of touchdowns (one passing, one receiving) from Tre’ Jackson on back-to-back offensive plays to take a 21-14 lead midway through the third quarter.
Northwood then got its own back-to-back scoring plays from White to regain the upper hand.
A 17-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Jefferson from Airline quarterback Ben Taylor, who threw for 208 yards and three scores Friday, tied things again early in the fourth quarter.
The Falcons used an eight-play drive to travel 74 yards. White’s 6-yard run with 5:34 left gave Northwood the lead for good.
Airline turned the ball over on downs with 4 minutes left near midfield.
Considering the outstanding performance by the Falcons up front, the game was all but over.
White took six of the seven subsequent carries and helped run the clock to :00.
“I was holding the ball with two hands,” White said. “Coach entrusted me with the end of this game and I am going to make sure he can trust me again in the future.”
Contact Roy at roylangiii@yahoo.com
Northwood 35, Airline 28
Score by quarters
Airline | 0 | 7 | 14 | 7 | – 28
Northwood | 0 | 7 | 21 | 7 | – 35
Scoring summary
Nw – Quintavion White 2 run (Eric Watts kick)
Air – Daxton Chavez 21 pass from Ben Taylor (Ben Jump kick)
Nw – Welch 2 run (Eric Watts kick)
Air – Tre’ Jackson 32 run (Ben Jump kick)
Air – Jackson 22 pass from Taylor (Ben Jump kick)
Nw – White 15 run (Eric Watts kick)
Nw – White 44 run (Eric Watts kick)
Air – Cameron Jefferson 17 pass from Taylor (Ben Jump kick)
Nw – White 6 run (Eric Watts kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: AHS – Bryson Broom 2-11, Ben Taylor 3-(-18), Tre’ Jackson 11-65, Joio Johnson 3-14, Kylin Jackson 1-(-3), Cameron Jefferson 1-2. NW – Quintavion White 31-264, Desmond Harris 2-(-2), Mar’Jayvious Moss 3-19, Fabien Sanders 5-6, Elijah Crawford 1-8, Mason Welch 8-49.
Passing: AHS – Taylor 15-32-0-208. NW – Welch 9-13-0-118.
Receiving: AHS – Tre Jackson 3-41, Daxton Chavez 6-93, Jefferson 3-55, Kylin Jackson 1-7, Bob Patterson 2-12. NW – Harris 4-48, Marc Denison 4-62, Moss 1-8,
