By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
It’s hard to complain when your team goes over 200 yards in both rushing and passing and has five different players score a total of seven touchdowns, as the Northwood Falcons did Thursday night in a 48-12 win over Bossier at the Bearkats’ Memorial Stadium.
Northwood coach Austin Brown was even able to look past his kickoff team allowing a pair of returns for touchdowns. But he did notice. “Oh well,” he said.
Increased kickoff coverage practice is sure to be on the practice agenda, but for now the Falcons will take the outcome to move to 3-2 at the halfway point in the regular season (and 1-1 in District 1-4A).
“We wanted to be efficient, have good numbers and make sure we made the right calls,” Brown said.
There was a lot the Falcons did right.
Northwood gave up more yards on two kickoff returns for touchdowns (162) than it did in total offense for the entire game (147).
The offense rushed for 232 yards and passed for 219. Northwood had 10 running plays of at least 10 yards. Seven of the eight pass completions were for first downs.
More than that, the Falcons took control of this game from the outset. Northwood had consecutive rushes of 15, 13, 14 and 20 yards to get into the end zone with less than two minutes gone on a run by Quintavion White.
The next time they had the ball, there was a 19-yard pass to White, then a 14-yard run by Fabien Sanders before Mason Welsh found Marc Denison behind the Bearkat defense for a 54-yard touchdown strike.
Northwood gained at least 10 yards on eight of its first 11 offensive plays.
“We preached all week about having fun and playing with joy,” Brown said. “I thought the sideline did a great job of doing that and celebrating.”
That was obvious on the Falcons’ final score. An 18-yard touchdown run by John Sneed, a freshman who had just been called up to the varsity, set off a wild celebration by the Falcons.
Part of that celebration might have been because they didn’t have to watch the ensuing kickoff go the distance in the opposite direction, as had already happened twice before.
Bossier’s Ja’karvis Guice took one back 87 yards in the first half and Keyshun Johnson followed that with a 75-yard return to end the third quarter.
There wasn’t much to smile about for Bossier coach De’Aumante Johnson, but he was pleased with his special teams.
“We worked on kickoff return hard this week,” Johnson said. “The work we put in really showed tonight.”
The Bearkats (0-2, 0-5) were able to generate offense in spots, but there was an interception and a sack on possessions inside the Northwood 30 in the first half and a fumbled snap at the Bossier 4 in the fourth quarter.
“I feel like we moved the ball well at times,” Johnson said. “We just have to learn how to capitalize when we get down there. With a young team, you kind of figure those mistakes are going to happen.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com
Northwood 48, Bossier 12
Score by quarters
Northwood | 13 | 14 | 14 | 7 | – 48
Bossier | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | – 12
Scoring summary
NW – Quintavion White 20 run (kick failed)
NW – Marc Denison 54 pass from Mason Welch (Willie Martinez kick)
NW – Desmond Harris 22 run (Martinez kick)
NW – Fabien Sanders 6 run (Martinez kick)
B – Ja’karvis Guice 87 kickoff return (run failed)
NW – Denison 59 pass from Hutson Hearron (Martinez kick)
NW – Harris 4 run (Martinez kick)
B – Keyshun Johnson 75 kickoff return (run failed)
NW – John Sneed 18 run (Alexander Williams kick)
Individual Leaders
Rushing – Northwood (33-232), Sanders 10-94, White 7-69, Harris 7-52, Sneed 3-22, Hearron 1-7, Tomarcus Keith 2-minus-2, Mason Welch 3-minus-10. Bossier (32-120), LeBrandon Davis 15-71, Caleb Jones 5-21, Quintarion Scott 2-55, Johnson 3-10, Tre Christor 5-minus-14, Team 2-minus-23
Passing – Northwood (8-19-0-219), Welch 7-15-0, 160 yards, Hearron 1-3-0, 59 yards, Jaxon Bentzler 0-1. Bossier (5-15-1-27), Christor 5-13-1, 27 yards, Scott 0-2-1.
Receiving – Northwood, Denison 3-124, Harris 2-33, Sanders 1-38, White 1-19, Elijah Crawford 1-5. Bossier, Guice 2-15, Johnson 2-17, Kerel Woods 1-minus-5.
