Five turnovers hindered the Chargers as they dropped a hard-fought conference game against top-ranked Southern Durham 33-25 Friday night at Northwood.
Northwood held a 25-21 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but Southern scored 12 unanswered points to close out the game. Southern quarterback Kendall Hinton threw a 14-yard touchdown pass and later scrambled 50 yards into the end zone after the Chargers appeared to have him stopped in the backfield for the game’s final points.
Northwood would have one last attempt and would drive down to the Southern 30, but Northwood quarterback Ti Pinnix threw an interception, one of three on the night.
“We have to be able to execute and finish the game,” said senior Jalen Smith, who had two touchdowns on the night.
Southern Durham is the defending 3AA state champs and were heavy favorites Friday, but Northwood gave the Spartans a scare Friday.
“We played our hearts out,” senior Jacob Leviner said.
The Chargers had the Southern Durham game slip right through their fingertips for the second straight year, as they lost to the Spartans last year by a failed two-point conversion. Many players were very frustrated after the game.
“That’s two years in a row we have lost a close game to Southern Durham,” senior Jacob Fowler said. “We’re hungry to win, we aren’t satisfied.”
Friday night, the Chargers looked strong out of the gate as the defense was able to keep the potent Southern Durham offense from scoring until the second quarter. After senior Darius Cole returned a punt to the Southern Durham 10-yard line, quarterback Ti Pinnix connected with Jalen Smith for a nine-yard touchdown and the first points of the game.
Southern Durham quickly responded on a 60-yard touchdown run by Jordan Brown to make the score 7-7 with 10 minutes left in the second quarter.
After a field goal block by Elijah Washington, Kadarus Rone scored from five-yards out to make the score 13-6 going into halftime.
Southern started to take over in the second half. Hinton scored on a 30-yard run, then the Spartans’ defense came up with an interception that they ran back for a touchdown to make the score 21-13.
The Chargers rallied and took a 25-21 lead late in the third quarter thanks to another touchdown pass to Smith and a run by Rone.
The game ended 25-33 as Northwood was unable to take down a heavily favored Southern Durham.
Northwood is now 2-2 in conference and 6-2 overall they take on Northern Vance next week for Homecoming.