North Crowley capitalizes on mistakes to shut out Trimble Tech
North Crowley feasted on Trimble Tech turnovers and miscues for a 37-0 shutout in a penalty-marred game Thursday night at Farrington Field.
Of the five touchdowns scored by the Panthers (2-7, 2-4 District 4-6A), four touchdown drives began on the Bulldogs’ (2-7, 0-6) side of the field. Of those, North Crowley scored after a fumble recovery, interception, blocked punt attempt, and punt of 24 yards. Trimble Tech fumbled nine times, losing two, and threw a pair of interceptions. All of their turnovers came in the first half.
North Crowley fumbled three times but never turned the ball over.
The Panthers led 14-0 at halftime with both touchdowns coming after turnovers.
On the game’s first play from scrimmage, a mishandled exchange from center to quarterback resulted in a fumble recovery by North Crowley’s Yasir Muhammad at the Trimble Tech 15. Two plays later, Tristan White went off tackle and then to the left for an 8-yard touchdown less than a minute into the game.
Then, just before the first quarter ended, Bryce Jones scored from the 2. It came four plays after Coryon Francis intercepted at the Trimble Tech 45 and returned to the 14-yard line. Jones also had the last touchdown for North Crowley as the Panthers scored 16 points in the final quarter.
In the second quarter, the Bulldogs got their offense going. They moved from their 20 to the North Crowley 16 only to be intercepted in the end zone by Carlos Walker. He returned it to the North Crowley 20 but the Panthers did not score.
Until that drive, the Bulldogs offense had been held to minus-9 yards. They finished with 83 yards of offense, mostly through the air.
In the second half, North Crowley made it 21-0 when Christopher Taylor took a pass from Quinten Jackson and turned it into a 26-yard touchdown. It came six plays after teammate Ronald Wilson, Jr. blocked a punt attempt. The Panthers took over at the Bulldog 35-yard line.
Jackson was 10-of-16 passing with no interceptions for 100 yards. The sophomore also was his team’s leading rusher with 14 carries for 71 yards and a late touchdown.
One standout player on defense for North Crowley was Armani Crayton, who came off of the right side of the line for several quarterback sacks and accounted for other losses behind the line of scrimmage.
Kicker Sammy Rodriguez was good on all five PATs.
North Crowley committed 10 penalties for 131 yards. Trimble Tech had eight infractions for 70 yards.