Northwood stays unbeaten with 48-9 win over Laurence Manning

Manning – Northwood Academy comfortably won its third straight football game of the season on Friday, going on the road to beat Laurence Manning Academy at Billy Chitwood Field. However, to Chargers head coach Johnny Waters, this victory was a little different than the first two.

           “It’s a region game (SCISA AAAA) and Laurence Manning is traditionally a tough team,” said Waters, who is in his third year at NA after having been the head coach at First Baptist for several years. “ Any time you go on the road, especially at a place like this, it’s good to get a win. I’ve come here for years, and it’s always been a dogfight.”

           Northwood came out of the gates fast against the Swampcats, who dropped their second straight game to fall to 1-2 overall and 0-2 in AAAA games. The Chargers took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards for a touchdown, recovered the football in the end zone after a high snap on an LMA punt attempt and returned a punt to the Laurence Manning 15-yard line to set up a short scoring drive to give them a 21-0 lead with 2:21 remaining in the first quarter.

           “We really performed well in the first and third quarters,” Waters said of NA, which led 27-3 at halftime and scored on its first two possessions of the second half to secure the triumph. “We got a little lackadaisical, but that’s what happens sometimes when you score early. We’ve got to learn to clean that up.

“It (scoring after receiving the opening kickoff) was huge. I was very pleased, then we stuttered in the second quarter with miscues we normally don’t make, to be honest with you. We came back in the third and closed it out.”

Veteran head coach Jimmy Noonan, in his first season in charge of the Swampcats, has an inexperienced team that is lacking in size. He said Northwood was able to expose that.

“They’re as good as advertised,” Noonan said. “They’re very balanced offensively and they’re a very physical team. They’re strong and we’re not. We knew that coming into the season. We’re young in spots and we’re undersized in spots. And again, they were strong in spots where we weren’t.

“Coach Waters has done a good job putting together this group. They’re contenders, they’re playing like contenders. I told our guys we’ll find out where we are tonight. And sometimes you also find out where you aren’t.”

The Chargers took just 3 minutes, 11 seconds, off the clock to get on the scoreboard. Quarterback Kevin Johnson was 5-for-5 on the drive for 59 yards. That helped set up a 9-yard scoring run by senior running back Kaven Ford. The extra point attempt failed, leaving the score at 6-0 with 8:49 left in the first quarter.

The NA defense forced a quick 3-downs-and-out scenario on LMA’s first possession. Lined up to punt from its 19, the football was snapped over the head of Laurence Manning punter Daniel Vargas. It was recovered in the end zone by junior Tyler Cumbee. Johnson threw to wide receiver Scott Geisel for the 2-point conversion to make it 14-0 with 6:58 to go.

Northwood’s third score of the quarter came after Aydan Hogan returned a punt 30 yards to the Swampcat 15. Kaven Ford had an 11-yard run on first down before Bryson Ford scored from four yards out on the next play. Placekicker Cole McLeod added the extra point to make it 21-0 with 2:21 remaining in the opening stanza.

LMA didn’t pick up its initial first down until its fifth possession of the contest. Due in part to the 19 yards loss on the bad snap, Laurence Manning didn’t get into positive rushing yards until the fourth quarter. Still, the Chargers defense had 12 tackles for loss, holding the Swampcats to seven rushing yards and 138 passing yards.

“In all three of our games, most of the points we’ve allowed came after we were substituting a lot,” said Waters, whose team beat Strong Rock Christian from Georgia 42-14 and First Baptist 54-16. “Our first defense is really, really good.”

Senior defensive lineman Garrett Andy forced a fumble, recovered a fumble, had 11/2 tackles for a loss and broke up a pass. Senior defensive lineman Hammer White had a fumble recovery and two TFLs, linebacker Dominic Russell had 1 ½ sacks and Jordin Carter had an interception.

LMA got on the scoreboard on a 25-yard field goal by Vargas with 8:34 left in the second quarter. NA’s final six points of the first half came via a pair of field goals from McLeod. He had a 25-yarder and then a 24-yarder on the final play of the half to give Northwood the 24-point lead.

After struggling offensively in the second quarter, the Chargers opened the second half strong. After taking over at their 40 following a punt on the initial possession of the third quarter, Johnson hit Hogan for a 15-yard gain, Geisel for four yards and Hogan for 19 for a first down at the Laurence Manning 22. After an incompletion, Kaven Ford went in for the touchdown to make it 34-3 with 8:32 left.

The Swampcats got their only touchdown on the ensuing possession. Facing fourth down and 10 yards to go from the NA 40, quarterback Grainger Powell connected with wide receiver Payton Brown on a fly pattern down the right sideline for the score with 5:39 to go.

Running back Michael Polite did most of the damage for Northwood on its next scoring drive. He had runs of 24 and 17 to set up an eventual 8-yard scoring run with 4:23 left in the third quarter.

The Chargers’ final touchdown came on a 70-yard scoring run by Carter.

Johnson completed 19 of 31 passes for 202 yards against in interception. Geisel caught eight of those passes for 54 yards, while Hogan had seven catches for 100 yards. Kaven Ford had 90 yards and two scores on 11 carries, Carter had 73 yards on four carries, and Politte had seven carries for 58 yards.

Waters said the offense wasn’t as crisp as it was the first two games.

“We missed four or five guys who were wide open for touchdowns,” he said. “Our quarterback is really, really good, but he overthrew many. That’s not him normally.”

LMA’s Powell completed 15 of 23 passes for 138 yards and one touchdown against an interception, not bad numbers considering the amount of duress he was under throughout the game.

“They were able to put pressure on the quarterback, shut down the run, making us one-dimensional,” Noonan said. “That was not a good recipe. In the first half, we had three turnovers.

“We’ve got to provide the quarterback some time so he can get comfortable. He was just never able to set his feet. He was never comfortable. Obviously we had to move the pocket around. They were moving it for us in the first half.”

Linebacker Peyton McGee had an interception for the Swampcats.

Despite the tough past two weeks, Noonan said the Swampcats are still putting in the work.

“The guys are working hard and we’ve got to keep doing that,” he said. “We’ve got to keep taking advantage of our strengths. We do have some weaknesses and our opponent was able to exploit those tonight.

“We ha a good week of practice, but you’ve got to transfer it out to the grass.”