Northside Starts the Season with a Shutout Win Over Hale County
The Northside Rams (1-0) dominated the Hale County Wildcats (0-1) 35-0 on the road to claim their first win of the season.
Former Rams offensive coordinator and new head coach Robbie Jones spoke on how it felt getting his first head coaching victory.
"It feels good," said Jones. "It's what this program is about, it's not about me it's about them, and hopefully we can get a bunch more."
Jones has been with Northside since 2007, first under coach John Montgomery who hired him, then with coach Chris Hilliker when he took over the coaching role in 2012. Hilliker retired from coaching the Rams in May, cementing himself as winningest football coach in the school's history.
The game started out slow for both teams, due mainly because of Hale County's sloppy play and mental mistakes by Northside resulting in short drives by both teams.
The biggest play of the first quarter was the Rams fake punt which ended up being intercepted by the Wildcats Tyrell Smith, who brought it to the Rams' 48-yard line. Hale County went three-and-out though and was unable to get the punt off, which resulted in Northside receiving the ball on the Wildcats 39-yard line. The quarter ended just a couple plays later with no scores by any team.
The Rams immediately shook off the rust from the first quarter with a 32-yard rushing touchdown by senior Justin Montgomery on the very first play of the second quarter, bringing the score to 7-0.
After another three-and-out by Hale County, Northside kept their momentum going, scoring another touchdown in just five plays, courtesy of a 35-yard pass from senior quarterback Braden Green to senior wide receiver William Roberts. Northside missed the point after attempt though, keeping the score at 13-0.
The Rams would end up getting another opportunity to score points before halftime after receiving the ball on their own 48-yard line late in the first half. Just like their second touchdown drive, it would take them just five plays again to score with the same Green to Roberts combo. Green ran in the two-point conversion to end the half with Northside up 21-0.
Before the game began, Jones said that his team plans to "just run the ball." Northside was able to establish their rushing dominance in the second half, only running the ball on their first drive, which started at their own 33-yard line, up until their 32-yard rushing touchdown by senior Luke Jones.
The Rams were able to tack on one more rushing touchdown on their next possession in the third quarter, which was only a one play 5-yard rush by junior running back Aubrey Horner, thanks to an interception made by senior Camden Sumner the play before.
The rest of the games possessions ended in the teams either trading punts or turnovers on downs, resulting in Northside getting the 35-0 shutout.
"I think that it's good to start off with a win, but we made a lot of mistakes and we got to work on things," said Jones. "It's week one and I'm satisfied with a win, but I am not glad or happy with where we are."
Hale County will look to claim its first win of the season next week on the road against Greensboro.
Northside will look to add a second win to the season in its road matchup against Cleburne County next week.
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