For the first time in school history, Northern Nash hosted a regional final on their home field. And Knight Nation showed up in full support.
Northern Nash got the ball first and came out red hot. Keno Jones made several quick passes and got Northern all the way down to the 2 yard line, but a delay of game and a few well-timed tackles forced Bryson Jenkins to kick a 28 yd field goal.
Once Seventy First got the ball, they had a great drive going until Northern Nash defense stood tall and stopped them at the Northern 8 yd line. The second quarter was mostly a defensive style game and each team made critical stops at each point. At halftime the score was Northern Nash 3-0.
After halftime, it was a question of who could make adjustments. Northern’s defense forced Seventy First to a 3 and out on their possession, then the Knights started their drive at their own 13 yd line. Keno Jones formulated a drive that ended with a touchdown for Northern and that put the Knights up 10-0.
Seventy First got the ball and they had a great drive that ended with a rushing touchdown with a failed 2 point conversion. Northern held the lead at 10-6 with 3:31 left in the 3rd. On the next possession by Northern, the Knights were unable to get a drive going and they had to punt the football.
Seventy First started with great field position and they ended up scoring with 11:54 left in the 4th quarter and were able to convert the 2 point conversion, which put them in the lead at 14-10. Northern got the ball and had a methodical drive that ended with a 37 yd touchdown run by Dywhaun Mitchell, which put Northern up 17-14.
As it was getting closer to the end of the game, Seventy First got a drive going and they scored on a 29 yd rushing touchdown with a two point conversion that put them in control 22-17 with 6:16 left in the 4th quarter.
Northern was stopped on 3 straight plays and the game was on the line with 1:02 left in the 4th at the 7 yd line. But as Northern Nash Coach Farriss said “We set the goal in August to be here and there is no reason to change things that were working to get us here.” That is exactly the mindset that fueled Northern on the critical 4th down.
Before the play, a timeout was called, Death Valley was quiet, and it all came down to one play for Northern. Keno was able to roll out to the right and find his tight end Ashton Rhodes who caught it and scored to put Northern up 23-22 with 58 seconds left in the game.
“I knew that our coaches were going to call a great play. I also knew that Keno was going to throw it to whoever was open at the time,” Rhodes said about what ended up being the winning play.
Seventy First got the ball back with no timeouts and made it to the 50 yd line. They opted for a hail-mary, but it was broken up. And with that, Northern Nash prevailed and punched their ticket to the 3A state championship game, which will be held next Saturday, December 10 at 7 pm at Carter Finley Stadium in Raleigh.
Playing for the state championship next week will be tough, but the Knights are already focusing on what they need to do to be competitive. “We have got to be prepared – we will be playing a good team and we have to bring our all to the game next week,” Rhodes said.
Coach Farriss agreed. “There is nothing to hold back, we set the goal to be there…we are going to leave it all on the field at Carter Finley Stadium.”
Randall King, wide receiver for the Knights, talked about how Seventy First played. “They are a hard fought team and they played their hearts out. Their sportsmanship was awesome.”
Be on the lookout for a state championship game preview next week as well as information on how you can purchase tickets for the championship game.
ENC Sports Review 