PITTSBORO — As Northwood (1-2, 1-0) earned its first win of the season over North Moore (0-3 0-1), 33-13, Friday, Dalton Brown earned a soaked t-shirt and a game ball for winning his first game as the coach of his alma mater.
“It feels like a full circle Pittsboro moment,” Brown said. “Just happy to come back and be here with the boys. It’s their team. They did a great job. They put the game plan in action and executed very well. So, I’m very happy about that.”
On a big night for the Northwood community, as the East Chatham Chargers youth football players and cheerleaders were in attendance, the Chargers put on a huge offensive bounce back performance that went much better than the previous showing at Union Pines.
Brown said his offensive line “answered the challenge” after being outmuscled the week prior, and junior running back Robert Tripp put that to the test with two long rushing touchdowns. Tripp also scored through the air on a swing pass from junior quarterback Grayson Cox.
Cox was also a force in both the run and pass game as he ran for a long touchdown at the end of the first quarter, putting the Chargers ahead, 14-13. To put the finishing touches on the night in the fourth quarter, Cox found sophomore Raje Torres deep down the field for another score after scrambling around defenders in the backfield.
“It took a lot, but as a team we pushed and got over it,” Cox said about the response from last week’s loss. “We put it behind us, and we knew what we needed to do when we game planned like we should have. We came out here and played our hardest, and it showed on the field.”
The Chargers didn’t have the best start defensively, though. Early in the first quarter, North Moore senior Brandon Powell took off for a long run down to the Northwood 4-yard line and set up junior Joseph Dunn to score on a short run and put the Mustangs up, 7-0.
North Moore took a 13-7 lead later in the quarter after Powell ran in another touchdown from within Northwood’s 5-yard line.
But from that point, Northwood’s defensive settled in and limited the big gains out of North Moore’s wing-t offense for the most part.
“Our guys communicated at the second level and our guys up front played physical for the second week in a row,” Brown said. “I thought that was one bright point from Union Pines. We played physical on the defensive line, and we continued that this week.”
As part of Northwood’s offensive resurgence, other players such as senior receiver Isaiah Blair and Torres made key contributions, too.
Torres helped move the chains multiple times for the Chargers when he got the ball in space. After battling it out with Cox for the starting quarterback position prior to the season, Torres has found a crucial role in the slot, bringing versatility as both a rusher and a route runner.
As a whole, Northwood’s offense displayed how versatile it could be against North Moore with chunks of yards coming from both the air and the ground.
Cox said that some of the positive plays were even improvised as the dynamic offensive corps can adjust to what the defense gives them on the fly.
With the way the Chargers played Friday, Brown could be in for even more “Ws” should his team build on the win and stay consistent through conference play.
Cox said a boost of confidence was “needed” especially after the way Northwood’s season started in its non-conference games.
“It was nice to just get boosted up,” Cox said. “It’s not going to get to our heads. We’re going to play like we should play. We’re going to slow the game down like we should slow the game down. We’re just going to do what we usually do and win how we should win.”
Northwood, now 1-2 on the season, has a tough game Friday when it travels to Southeast Alamance. That game will kick off at 7 p.m.
As for North Moore, the Mustangs are in unfamiliar territory.
North Moore has got off to its first 0-3 start since 2013. After losing many key seniors from last year’s team, the Mustangs are trying to build back up to their usual standard, taking a bumpier road along the way.
The Mustangs will have a bye next week and wait for their first conference home game against Southeast Alamance on Sept. 20.
