Grading Out: Usual suspects stand out for Northside, Southside
Published 4:08 pm Saturday, August 27, 2016
- Quarterback Marshall Medlock gets the ball into Zikajah Crawford’s hands in Southside’s game against North Duplin. Crawford took off up the middle for a few yards. He and Ronald Dennis each picked up 67 yards on the ground in a shutout win against Dixon.
The usual suspects more than pulled their weight to help both Northside and Southside improve to 2-0 when they hosted their respective home openers on Friday.
The Seahawks muscled their way past Dixon with ease, 22-0. They got touchdown runs from Zikajah Crawford, Marshall Medlock and Brandon Sullivan. Special teams put up two points with a safety on a punt attempt, too.
Northside got standout efforts from the quarterback-running back tandem of Jackson MIdgette and James Barrow to push past North Duplin, 28-10.
While the Panthers and Seahawks are off to a perfect start, something has to give when the two meet in Chocowinity on Friday. Both will need similar contributions from their stars, but will also have to get contributions from the rest of the team as a whole.
JAMES BARROW
With three touchdown runs on Friday, Barrow singlehandedly dismantled a North Duplin team that was seemingly unable to stop him. Between the Rebels’ lack of rest and the fact that coach Keith Boyd saw them play Southside earlier in the week, he spearheaded the Panthers’ unstoppable ground offense.
ZIKAJAH CRAWFORD
Crawford stood out as a highlight of a three-man operation in Southside’s backfield on Friday. He ran for 67 yards in the Seahawks’ second win in as many games. He put them on the board with an 11-yard touchdown run less than seven minutes into the game.
BRANDON SULLIVAN
Sullivan spent much of the preseason nursing an injury, but again proved his importance to Southside’s offense by picking up 48 rushing yards on Friday. He scored the team’s final touchdown on a 2-yard scamper, giving the Seahawks their 22-0 advantage that would stand as the final score.
Jackson Midgette comes off the field after picking off Creswell’s quarterback last week. He had a touchdown run and a fumble recovery against North Duplin on Friday, again proving his dominance on both sides of the ball.
JACKSON MIDGETTE
Midgette excelled on both sides of the ball against North Duplin, just as he did against Creswell a week earlier. He ran for his second touchdown of the young season. After hauling in an interception against Creswell, he notched his second turnover, too, by recovering a Rebel fumble.