JOURNAL STAFF

The Northwood Falcons made their 2023 debut Friday night.

Four games in, coach Austin Brown’s team picked a fine time to find its stride and post its first victory, a 27-12 decision over Huntington at Independence Stadium in the District 1-4A opener.

“It was good to finally see Northwood football for the first time all season,” said Brown, whose young team dropped its first three outings, two close losses before a blowout last week at Airline.

The district matchup against the Raiders was fraught with danger.

“They have speed, and we were well aware of that. We weren’t able to do a very good job last week with Airline’s speed and big-play ability,” said Brown. “The focus all week was to stay disciplined and in technique, but really the major focus was the will to win. We were 0-3, but we were only a few points away from 2-1.

“You could feel the kids had that taste in the first half. They might not have quite understood yet what it took to win, but they could feel it. Now our job is to make sure they understand what they were feeling and to keep it going.”

The Falcons and Raiders traded scores, although Northwood never trailed and carried a 14-12 advantage into halftime. Afterwards, playing keepaway from the explosive Huntington attack proved a winning strategy.

“In the second half we were able to be more effective offensively, do what we wanted,” said Brown, “and run some clock. We slowed our tempo when we had a solid lead.”

The outcome reversed last year’s, when Huntington topped Northwood on a day that Brown will always remember fondly – despite that defeat.

“My son (Braxton ‘Cooter’ Brown) was born last year at 1 o’clock, and I made it to the game about 30 minutes before kickoff,” he recalled.

“He didn’t get to start life off very well. So this week, the boys said, ‘it’s personal. We’ve gotta win one for Cooter’ and for his first birthday, he went 1-0.”

The Falcons (1-3, 1-0) celebrate homecoming against Bossier next week, then face Evangel. The Raiders (2-2, 0-1) visit Minden next Friday before meeting BTW to start October.