Dry Spell Over for Northern

What started out as a rock-em- sock-em game turn into a celebration for Northern Nash as Northern just three short years ago was having a hard time winning a game wins their opening round playoff game against Arch-rival Southern Nash tonight at Death Valley 26-7.

Northern scored first on a 85 yard run from Rashad Hedgepeth with 11:06 to play in the second quarter. Southern who moved the ball better than Northern in the first half took less than two minutes to tie the game and take the lead on a 39 yard run from Tracy Coppedge. Northern made their extra point but because Southern was off sides and the penalty happened before the play Northern second attempt missed but Southern's extra point was good enough to give Southern a 7-6 lead at the half.

Northern took their second half first opportunity and drove the field and scored on a Hedgepeth 13 yard run but they missed the two point conversion. The very next possession Southern snapped the ball over their punters head and Northern start from the Southern two yard line. Marquez Farmer score and Northern added a two point conversion to make it 20-7.

Not finished with the mistakes Southern fumble a snap from center and Northern took advantage to score once again on a fifty yard drive. T J Marshall score from seven yards out and the celebration was on for the Knights as they shut out Southern in the second half to win 26-7.

Northern now 9-3 will travel to South Central a 25-14 winner over West Brunswick tonight. South Central is the second team that Northern will play in the playoffs after having faced and beat South Central in the regular season at South Central 14-12. That was however way back when Northern defense was the only thing they had going. Their offense has now started enjoying some of this winning that Northern is now doing.

The number one seed from the Big East Hunt was shocked byD H Conley who scored 36 points on the Warriors. That only meant that the Warriors won by 31. Hunt hangs a 67 spot on the Vikings 67-36.

Nash Central came close at West Carteret losing 20-13. Central's loss and Southern losing the conference goes 1-1 on the first night of the playoffs. Northern gives the Big East with two teams advancing to the second round after beating conference foe Southern Nash.

Tarboro had little trouble with Pasquatank leading 33-0 at the half and winning 47-0. We talked about this last night that SouthWest Edgecombe had to play a conference foe which they beat during the regular season but had to play them again at Beddingfield. Beddingfield jumped on SWE early and hung on for 36-28 victory over SWE. This is the first -first round loss for SWE since Raymond Cobb came to Cougar land.

The final local team playing the first night of the playoffs was North Edgecombe and they hosted conference foe Kipp Pride who they have already beaten 38-6. NE wins tonight 40-20.

Did the Northern-Southern game for TV which will be shown at 10.00am Saturday morning and
at 9.00pm Sunday night