Northridge Comes Alive In Second Half To Beat Bryant 20-12

Tonight, the Northridge High School Jaguars (3-0, 1-0) won a hard-fought game against the Paul W. Bryant Stampede (0-3, 0-1) with the final score of 20-12.

The stadium was packed throughout the game, and with 11:06 left in the second quarter, the PA announcer came over the speaker to announce that they had reached stadium capacity and they were no longer selling tickets.

Northridge had the only score of the first quarter, with a Kollyn Shellnut 66-yard touchdown pass to Cory White at the 8:27 mark.

Bryant answered back with a 27-yard touchdown catch and run by Tobias Burrell, evening things up at 6-6 with 11:00 left in the first half.

Despite rushing for 281 yards in their 26-0 victory last week against Central, the Jaguars struggled as the Stampede defense had them stifled early on.

The score read 6-6 going into halftime.

Stampede quarterback Cameron Ellis and coach Eldrick Hill dialed up a big-time offensive strike to wide receiver, Javion Watkins on a 42-yard touchdown to open things up in the second half, giving Bryant their first lead of the night 12-6.

After both teams fought to gain the upper hand, Northridge finally started gaining momentum with a late drive in the third quarter. Unfortunately for the Jags, Shellnut went down hard and had to come off the field after being sacked on a first down play.

On the next drive Shellnut came back onto the field and led his team down the field, capped off by a nine-yard touchdown run by Christopher Jack, as the Northridge rushing attack slowly started to show signs of life.

The Jags watched the ball soar through the uprights on their extra point attempt, putting them in front 13-12 with 6:53 left in the third.

The rushing attack continued to knife its way through the stingy Bryant defense, as LilEric Street increased the lead with a 30-yard touchdown run.

With a 1:38 left in the game and 4th and goal from the five-yard line, Northridge needed one clutch stop from their defense to seal the deal on the victory, and the defense came up big forcing Ellis to throw the ball away.

Northridge head coach Mike Vickery had a lot of great things to say about his defense.

"With nine minutes left in second quarter, we had ran five snaps on offense. They were on the field the entire first half. They didn't get off the field at times, but they bent but never broke,” said Vickery.

He did add that they needed to work their discipline, after giving up quite a few offsides penalties.

Northridge will look to continue their hot start to the season, as they host the Bessemer City Tigers next week.

Bryant hits the road next week to take on the 0-3 McAdory Yellow Jackets as both teams are looking for its first win of the year.