North Murray wraps up 9th straight over Murray with huge first half

Published 11:12 pm Friday, September 30, 2022

CHATSWORTH — A stingy defense and an explosive offense propelled North Murray High School past Murray County in the battle for county bragging rights on Friday night.

North Murray (4-2, 2-0 Region 7-2A) piled up 42 points by halftime in a 49-0 road victory over its intra-county rival Murray (0-6, 0-2 Region 7-2A).

“It felt great, really great,” North Murray’s Judson Petty said. “We are taking it one game at a time and building off of each win.”

After scoring 40 points last week against Haralson County, the North Murray offense bested that mark by putting up 49 points Friday.

North Murray opened up the scoring early in the game when quarterback Seth Griffin hit Petty on a deep pass down the sideline to put the Mountaineers out in front 7-0 just a little over one minute into the game.

Petty found the end zone again a few minutes later on a 2-yard plunge set up by a Griffin connection with Skyler Williams on a 42-yard pass play. The next Griffin-to-Williams pass resulted in a 7-yard touchdown before the end of the first quarter, putting North Murray out front 21-0.

North Murray continued to find success in the second quarter. Griffin added a 28-yard touchdown rush midway through the quarter, and Petty added his third touchdown of the game on another long pass from Griffin, this one covering 62-yards.

The North Murray defense also got in on the scoring. A combination of North Murray’s Liam Rogers, John Craig and Carson Gibson blocked a Murray County punt. Rogers scooped up the ball and sprinted into the end zone for the touchdown.

“We all got there to block it. I looked down and there it was. I picked it up and took off,” Rogers said.

The Rogers touchdown Put North Murray up by a comfortable margin of 42-0 at halftime.

The Murray County offense struggled to gain ground against a stingy Mountaineer defense. The Indians offense mixed it up with both Aaron Flood and Judah Woodall spending time at quarterback but could not find the end zone.

The reserves finished out a large part of the second half.It’s the ninth straight win for North Murray over the Indians. Murray County has never beaten the Mountaineers.

North Murray will face Gordon Central at home next Friday at 7:30 p.m. Murray County will be idle.