Tigers tamed: Northwest Whitfield topples Adairsville 38-14

Published 1:45 pm Monday, October 21, 2024

Northwest Whitfield High School’s Bruins were able to bounce back from a road loss to Calhoun with a 38-14 victory over Adairsville at home Friday night.

In a football game that featured long drives from both teams, the Bruins (7-2, 3-2 Region 7-3A) beat the Tigers (5-3, 2-2 Region 7-3A) in region play.

“I credit the offseason, the weight room,” said Bruins head coach Josh Robinson. “January through May. It’s what we’ve been preaching to our guys since day one after the season ended last year. And it came into play tonight because we dominated the second quarter on the line of scrimmage.”

Northwest scored first late in the first quarter when quarterback Gavin Nuckolls had a 3-yard rushing touchdown. A Nery Martinez point after made the score 7-0.

Adairsville began the next possession at its 33-yard line. Northwest’s Chance Whitfield recovered a fumble to put the ball back in scoring position for the Bruins. Nuckolls connected with Jacob Lea in the end zone for what looked like a 29-yard TD but an illegal shift penalty negated the score.

On the very next play, Nuckolls connected with Will Wade for a TD to extend the lead to 14-0 following a successful Martinez kick.

Early in the second quarter the Bruins had a long drive that ended with Martinez kicking a 17-yard field goal.

Adairsville quarterback Ethan Long took to the air on several plays to bring the ball down to the Bruins’ 8-yard-line. Long found Tre Winters for an 8-yard TD. A successful Cooper Souders kick made the score 17-7.

The Tigers recovered an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, leading to a trick play that ended with Long running into the end zone with a 30-yard pass, narrowing the deficit to 17-14 following another successful kick.

Adairsville attempted to continue to build off momentum during the Tigers’ last drive in the first half but a fumble quelled those hopes when Northwest’s Dominick Johnson jumped on the ball to end the half.

That seemed to be all the Bruins needed to take back control of the game, beginning with a Caden Ramsey 5-yard rushing TD with 8:09 to go in the third quarter after barreling through the Adairsville defense.

The Tigers’ and Bruins’ next possessions resulted in neither team gaining a yard thanks to steady defensive lines.

Nuckolls relied on the passing game for the majority of the fourth quarter, leading to him running into the Adairsville end zone for a 7-yard TD with 11:55 to go in the game, bringing the score to 31-14.

Adairsville moved toward the end zone on their next possession but a Long pass was intercepted as Northwest’s Kade Parker jumped in between Long and the intended receiver.

The Bruins then went with a run-heavy offense to eat up time on the clock before turning over the ball on downs on the Tigers’ 21-yard-line with one minute left in the game. Northwest’s Lucas Amos jumped on a fumble in the Tigers’ end zone to end the score at 38-14 with 13 seconds left.

Nuckolls was 12-for-18 with 118 passing yards and 230 rushing yards.

Robinson credited the win to Northwest’s physicality.

“I think we won because we were a more physical football team this night,” he said. “I thought we made a lot of mental errors in the second quarter to let them get in it, and they’re really good and really talented. But at the end of the day, I think we came out, we played really hard and we just exerted our best effort towards them, which is exactly what I knew we could do.”

Friday’s game was the third time the region teams had faced each other, with the Bruins now leading 2-1 in the series.

The win ensures Northwest will go into its final scheduled game of the season with added momentum. The Bruins travel to Rossville on Friday at 7:30 p.m. to play Ridgeland.