Northwood Academy rebounds Strong In Football Under water’s Tutelage

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Summerville—When former First Baptist head coach Johnny Waters took over the football program at Northwood Academy, at the start of the 2023 season, the Chargers program had hit rock bottom with 29 straight losses.

Needless to say, Coach Waters had to develop some players and bring in some coaches along to help rebuild the team from the ground-up.

Well, Coach Waters is known as a coach who works hard to develop players, and he has done a masterful charge with the Chargers (10-2) coming into a semi-finals SCISA AAAA match-up with Porter-Gaud (10-1) on the road this week.

Last week Northwood defeated a rebuilding Laurence Manning team, 49-20 at home in a first-round play-off tune-up game before facing the Cyclones this week.

“We got up early tonight and we jumped on them early and that was the game plan,” said Coach Waters. “Kaven Ford ran really well tonight and it is a shame that Keshon Singleton broke his leg last week and he is out for the season. I called them thunder and lightning and they were a great one-two punch in our back field.

Ford rushed for 140 carries on 20 carries against LMA and he scored five touchdowns in a dominating performance.  Ty Washington had three catches for 26 yards and WR Ayden Hogan caught four passes for 50 yards and one touchdown. Senior quarterback Austin Grady (6-3, 190) passed for 105 yards and one touchdown during the game also.

Earlier this season P-G beat the Chargers and their will be a lot on the line this week on the road. “Porter-Guad is a great football team but in all honesty, we felt like we gave that game away with our mistakes,” said Coach Waters. “We might make a couple adjustments this week but we just need to cut out the penalties and mental mistakes. If we do that, we can be hard to beat.”

Coach Waters is very high on DE Will Watts who has 82 tackles and 12 Sacks on the season. Gabe Roper is a DT with 80 tackles and seven sacks, along with MLB Cody Mccleary who has a team leading 116 tackles. Right behind him with 101 tackles is senior LB Riley Vicars. 

Junior Edward White plays at a DT slot and he has 61 tackles on the season. Junior FS M.J. Davis is a prospect and he has 67 tackles from his FS position. Junior Quincey Lingard has 57 tackles from his OLB slot. Junior DT Edward White has contributed 51 tackles.

On the season Ford now has 962 yards on 127 carries and 12 TD;s. Singleton finished the season with 931 net yards on 129 carries and 15 touchdowns. Grady has a strong year passing the ball completing 114-of-168 for 1,580 yards and 11 TD’s.

This week’s game with P-G could be that signature win that Coach waters and his hard-working staff of coaches have been working towards this season. A win Friday night and the Chargers will be playing for the SCISA AAAA state championship.



(Just two seasons after losing 29 games in a row).