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4B
IXIORTHSIDE 34
By MATTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
With two players eclips
ing 200 yards in offense,
and with a defensive effort
that surrendered less than
100 yards, Northside High
scored perhaps one of the
more dominating wins in
Georgia’s most storied high
school football rivalry.
Tijuan Green had three
touchdowns for the Eagles in
Friday’s 34-7 victory against
Warner Robins High at
McConnell-Talbert Stadium.
Jerome Mitchell also scored
twice from the backfield,
quarterback Marques Ivory
accumulated 290 yards of
total offense and Green
ended the night with 217
all-purpose yards.
To break down the num
bers of both Ivory and Green,
Ivory ran for 26 yards and
was 13-for-20 passing for 264
yards with a touchdown and
an interception while Green
ran the football 17 times for
132 yards and caught five
passes for 85 more yards.
Even receiver Nick Bass
came out of Friday’s tussle
with triple yardage digits
with 104 receiving yards on
three catches.
These individual Northside
players alone overshadowed
the entire Warner Robins
High output, which was a
total net of 90 yards. The 0-2
Demons have yet to score an
offensive touchdown in 2007
as the only points came on
a 92-yard kickoff return by
Aaron Allen.
This was the third win in
a row for the Eagles against
Warner Robins. It also
clinched the first ‘champi
onship’ of the new season
for Northside as it secured
the ‘city championship.’ In
the 2006 game, the Eagles
only gave up seven points to
its archrivals, and that, too,
was on a special teams play.
In a more important
loss for Warner Robins,
junior cornerback Antonio
Adkinson suffered a serious
injury early in the second
quarter. He was taken off
the field on a stretcher (see
related story).
Northside had a 14-0 lead
at halftime, scoring touch
downs in both the first and
second periods. On their
first drive, the Eagles had
two clutch third-down con
versions off Ivory’s arm. He
hit his new tight end target,
Evan Arthur, on 3rd-and-10
for 23 yards at the Demon
47-yard-line.
The Warner Robins
defense managed some
' 'it;, ;■
ENI/Gary Harmon
A Northside sideline crewmember displays the No. 96 in
memory of Chris Johnson.
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SEPTEMBER 12, 2007
Hurt Demon on the road to recover}
By MA TTHEW BROWN
Journal Sports Writer
There was some good news for Warner Robins High
football from this past Friday night.
Head coach Bryan Way said Monday that cornerback
Antonio Adkinson was not seriously hurt on a second
quarter play against Northside High at McConnell-
Talbert Stadium.
Way said it was a “freak thing” where Adkinson, on
a play that was a run by Tijuan Green of the Eagles,
wasn’t hit by anybody but landed on his head. A long
delay followed, and Adkinson was taken off the field on
a stretcher.
However, Way said Adkinson was released from the
hospital that same evening and cleared to practice.
pressure on Ivory with big
sophomore tackle Jeffrey
Whitaker bringing him down
on the other side of the 50.
But Ivory avoided the rush
and somehow found Kevyn
Cooper behind a crowd of
players. The on-target strike
set up 3rd-and-l at the 38,
and Ivory easily ran for the
first.
Two plays later Green
slipped down the left side
wide open and caught his
first touchdown of 19 yards
at 6:52 of the opening quar
ter. Sophomore kicker Devon
Pike notched the PAT.
Northside had just a 30-
yard field to work with to
score at 10:17 of the second
quarter. The four-play drive
saw Green burst forward for
23 yards and Mitchell score
from 1 yard out. Pike made
his second straight PAT.
The Warner Robins offense
had only three first downs
in the first half, and one
of those came on a penalty.
Darius Hudson caught a
first-down pass from Shane
Sams in the first quarter, but
4 on ensuing plays Mitchell
wouldn’t let them get out
side, Ben Hicks stopped a
counter play and big Abry
Jones patted down a pass tct
set up fourth down.
Later in the half, Anton
Williams and Eric Fields
stopped Sams for 4th-and
long that set up the second
Eagle scoring drive. Jones
had both a sack and tackle
on the line in the second
period.
Warner Robins did have
some defensive highlights
in the first half as Darious
Lane broke up a pass intend
ed for Bass in the end zone
on a drive where Northside
missed a field goal try.
Northside was also driving
into the ‘red zone’ in the sec
ond quarter when Laureal
Richardson intercepted a
tipped pass at the 1 and
returned it to the 32.
Come the second half, the
Northside offense went back
to work with a new forma
tion unveiled with Green
taking shotgun snaps from
the quarterback position.
Though the tens of thou
sands in the stadium knew
Green would run with the
ball, he gained 27 yards the
first time and, with plenty of
space provided by the offen
.sive front, 22 the second
time for his second touch
down. Pike’s PAT made it
21-0 at 9:38 of the third.
The next 20 seconds of the
game belonged to Allen, for
that’s how long it took him
to take the kickoff at the 8,
get a clean block from Lane
on the kicker and score the
first Warner Robins touch
down of 2007.
With David Clark’s PAT,
the Demons had it back to
a two-touchdown game at
21-7.
But Warner Robins could
never crack through the
Eagle defensive unit, which
gave up only three first downs
in the second half. Arthur
served as Northside’s punt
er and pinned the Demons
on the 8 with the score still
21-7. Allen and Brandon
Jordan gained first downs
up to the 31, but heavy pres
sure forced the Demons to
make a catch that lost eight
yards.
As Northside got the foot
ball back on its 20, Ivory
went to one of his favorite
weapons from last year’s
postseason, the shuffle pass
to Bass. From the 13, Bass
took the ball, and with help
from fellow receiver Tracey
Lawrence’s block upfield he
made it a 75-yard gain to the
Demon 12.
Two plays into the fourth
quarter Green had his
third touchdown, a run of
two yards, and Pike kicked
Northside to a 28-7 lead.
Mitchell’s second touch
down came at 2:38 remain
ing on a 16-yard run where
he broke away from tack
lers and completed a 52-yard
drive of 10 plays.
Northside now looks for
a 3-0 record on Friday at
McConnell-Talbert when it
hosts North Clayton. Both
teams are in Region 4-AAAA,
but in separate sub-regions.
North Clayton, as the home
team in College Park in
2006, scored the most points
against the Eagles all sea
son, and it was Northside’s
slimmest margin of victory
in the regular season, 28-21.
Warner Robins is also in
action at McConnell-Talbert
when it hosts Central
Gwinnett on Saturday.
Last year’s Demon club
suffered a 17-0 loss to Central
Gwinnett in Lawrenceville
after dropping its game
against Northside.
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ENI/Gary Harmon
Northside’s Nick Bass breaks into the open as Warner Robins’ Andrew Jones gives
chase during the Eagles’ win over the Demons Friday.
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ENI/Gary Harmon
Laureal Richardson for the Demons breaks through the Eagles’ defensive front.
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Northside quarterback Marques Ivory laterals to a back.
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