Northern Nash drops host Nash Central for season's first win

As the final seconds of Friday’s football contest at Nash Central expired, a swarm of Northern Nash players embraced coach Mickey Crouch.

For the first time in 14 games, the Knights were able to celebrate a victory.

Northern Nash shut out Nash Central, 20-0.

“I don’t have any words for this,” Crouch said. “No one knows what those kids have been through. This is as satisfying as any championship.”

The Knights (1-8, 1-2 Big East) opened scoring in the second quarter compliments of a Rashad Hedgepeth touchdown run. Hedgepeth carried the handoff directly up the middle and popped out of a pile at the 17-yard line to score.

The Knights blocked a punt on the Bulldogs’ ensuing possession and took control of the ball at the Nash Central 9-yard line.

One play later Northern Nash scored, this time on an Aratavious Jones carry.

The play broke up the middle again, and Jones spun off an attempted tackle by a Bulldogs linebacker to score.

“I can’t even believe this,” Hedgepeth said. “The talk around town about how they were going to run up the score on us had us hyped. This is one of the biggest games of our season, and we wanted to win.”

The Knights scored for the final time when Marquez Farmer recovered the fifth Bulldogs fumble of the night. Nash Central quarterback Dominique Holloway fumbled the ball on an option play, then failed to recover it. Farmer scooped the ball up and ran in 36 yards for the score.

“It meant more to them than it did to us tonight,” Bulldogs coach Kevin Crudup said. “We just didn’t play football tonight. That pretty much sums it up.”

The win is the first for the Knights against Nash Central (3-6, 2-2 Big East) since 2005.

“Our kids have to listen all year about how bad they are,” Crouch said. “All I can say is Christmas came early.”

Northern Nash 20

Nash Central 0

NN 0 14 6 0 — 20

NC 0 0 0 0 — 0

Second Quarter

NN — Rashad Hedgepeth 21 run (Conversion failed), 8:23

NN — Artavious Jones 9 run (Brandon Dawes conversion), 6:36

Third Quarter

NN — Marquez Farmer 36 fumble return (Conversion failed), 1:04

NNe_SRitNC

13First downs6

49—223Rushes-yards32—47

6Passing yards31

1—4—0Passes3—10—0

229Total offense108

1—1Fumbles-Lost5—2

7—55Penalties-Yards9—65

Individual Statistics

Rushing — NN: Artavious Jones 16 — 84; Rashad Hedgepeth 12 — 53; DeQuavius Mann 2 — 1; Brandon Dawes 9 — 38; Tavis Richardson 4 — 16; Joe Young 6 — 31 NC: Sedrick Jones 8 — (-3); Dequan Battle 4 — 3; Greg Arrington 9 — 27; Jalen Hendricks 3 — 1; Corey Woodard 2 — 13; Dominique Holloway 6 — 6

Passing — NN: Tavis Richardson 1—4—0 6 NC: Dominique Holloway 2—8—0 25; Jalen Hendricks 1—2—0 6

Receiving — NN: Tay Payton 1—6 NC: Terrance Copeland 2—14; Sedrick Jones 1—17