The Eagles squared off with county rival Houston Co. Bears Friday night at the MAC for the 15th time in the schools’ history and for the 15th consecutive year, the Eagles defeated the Bears by a score of 41-3. The Northside defense dominated the game again for the Eagles as they held the Bears to a single field goal as time expired in the first half. In the past six contests dating back to 2007, Bears have only scored one touchdown in addition to these three for a total of 10 points allowed over the six games which includes 4 shutouts. Robert Jones recovered a Bear fumble for the Eagles and senior Trey Payne was in the backfield all night causing havoc for the Bear offense. Payne also intercepted his second pass of the year and returned it for 17 yards to setup an Eagle score.

HoCo received the opening kickoff and the Eagle D forced a quick three-and-out and Northside took over on their own 46 yard line after the punt. Three plays later, Keshun Hill scored on a 1 yard run; the touchdown was setup by a nice 37 yard swing pass from Glenn Smith to Charlton Lane down to the 1 yard line. Isaac Rivera kicked his first of 5 perfect PATs for a 7-0 lead less than 2 minutes into the game. With 5:22 left in the first quarter, Rivera drilled a 27 yard field goal for a 10-0 lead. The Northside D quickly got the ball back for the offense and Glenn Smith scored on a 4 yard touchdown run to push the score to 17-0. Midway through the second quarter, Curtis Martin scored on a 2 yard run for a 24-0 advantage. Martin would finish the night with 130 yards on 15 carries. Houston Co. kicked a long field goal as time expired in the second to cut the Northside lead to 24-3 at the half, but that would prove to be the only points that the Eagles would give up all night.

The Eagles received the second half kickoff and moved the ball 60 yards in only 3 plays with Keshun Hill scoring on a 45 yard run to extend the Northside lead to 31-3. With 7:59 left in the third, backup QB Marcus Ivory connected with Robert Davis on a beautiful 60 yard ‘bomb’ for a touchdown on a one play drive to make the score 38-3. Rivera ended his perfect night by drilling a 22 yard field goal with 1:23 left to play in the third quarter for the final points in the 41-3 victory. On the night, Rivera was 5 for 5 on PATs, 2 for 2 on FGs, kicked all 7 of his kickoffs into the endzone, and dropped 2 of his 3 punts inside the Bear 20 yard line.

Northside improved to 5-0 on the year (2-0 in Region 2-AAAAA) and will face region opponent Grovetown next Saturday in a rare afternoon contest at 3:00pm at the MAC. The game will also be Northside’s annual ‘Play for the Cure’ cancer awareness game.