Green Wave easily handles Tupelo Christian, 40-10

By Angie Ledbetter

The North Delta Green Wave traveled east 70 miles to Tupelo to take on the Tupelo Christian Eagles in a non conference game on Friday night and came home with a 40-10 victory.

Improving their overall record to 6-3, the Green Wave fell to second place in their district after Desoto, Ark. defeated West Memphis 21-0 on Friday night to take the lead in the district with a 4-1 record.  

The Green Wave kicked off to the Eagles to start the game who ended the possession with a punt due to the play of the defense.  

The Green Wave started 1st and 10 on their own 42 and fumbled with 11:25 on the clock. The Eagles recovered it on the Green Wave 46 but could not capitalize and had to punt that possession away.  

Freshman Bryan Nickle went in as the Green Wave quarterback.  With 6:16 left on the clock, J.T. Dalrymple scored on a nine-yard run. The scored stood 6-0 after the two point conversion failed.

The Eagles were driving the ball down the field but could not get the ball into the endzone and had to attempt a field goal.  

Eagle kicker Darius Garrott kicked a 42-yard field goal with 2:21 left in the first quarter to cut the Green Wave lead 6-3 at the end of the quarter.

The Green Wave controlled the second quarter as they scored 22 points.

Dalrymple scored his second touchdown of the night on a five-yard run. Bateman Greenlee scored the two-point conversion  on a pass from Nickle with 9:56 on the clock.  

At the 5:48 mark, Hunter West scored on an 18-yard run.

Next to score was freshman Jim Tom Copeland on a 21-yard pass from Greenlee.  Dalrymple kicked the next two PATs to give the Green Wave a 28-3 lead with 30 seconds left in the half.

The only scoring in the third quarter was a 32-yard run by Dalrymple with 8:07 on the clock. The Green Wave lead stood 34-3 after the two-point conversion run failed.

The Green Wave continued to control the game and head coach Richard Russo started to substitute the players to give all the players some game experience.

With a little over two minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter, Michael Johnson broke loose and took the ball 78 yards into the end zone for another Green Wave touchdown. The Green Wave took a knee on the PAT.  

The Eagles got their only touchdown of the night with 6:53 left in the game when Ethar Nolan caught a 14-yard pass from Brett Pierce. The PAT was good by Garrott.  The final score was 40-10 with the victory going to the Green Wave.

Dalrymple led the team in rushing with 115 yards on 14 carries and three touchdowns.  Nickle had six carries for 95 yards.

Johnson had one carry for 78 yards and one touchdown and two receptions for 42 yards.  West had 65 yards on 10 carries with one touchdown.  

 Copeland had one catch for 15 yards with one touchdown.  Greenlee had one reception for three yards with a two-point conversion.

Greenlee completed two  of four passes for 50 yards and Nickle completed two of four for 10 yards.

The Green Wave had  new faces on the team with the 11 freshmen moving up.  They were Tres Brassel, John Cody Dalrymple, Michael Magee, Nickle, Corbin Baker, Anthony Pike, Will Dunlap, Ming Bullard, Matthew Barefoot, Catlin McArthur and Copeland. The team now consists of 33 players.

The Green Wave ended the game with 468 total yards on 53 plays, an average of 8.8 per play, including 408 rushing and 60 passing.  This was a season record of total yards for the Green Wave.

They were penalized six times for 60 yards and lost two fumbles.

The Eagles ended the game with 243 total yards on 47 plays, an average of 5.2 per play, including 176 passing and 67 rushing yards.  They were penalized seven times for 42 yards, and lost two fumbles.  

Blane Joyner led the team with 10 total tackles and one pass breakup. West had nine total tackles, four tackles for loss, one sack, one fumble recovery and one pass breakup.

Britt Lawrence had eight total tackles, two for loss.  Josh Garrott had seven total tackles, one for loss.  John Paul Keel had 6 total tackles, one for loss and one sack.  Greenlee had five total tackles, three for loss, three sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.

Dalrymple pulled down his sixth interception of the season.

Russo said, “Overall, I was pleased with our performance.  It is always good to put up 40 points and for your starting defense to only allow three points and for everyone on the team to see significant playing time. “

Russo said he was excited to see fire and emotion in the second half of the game. The two first half fumbles had him frowning a bit.

“I want our team to value the football more and eliminate those two first half fumbles,” he said.  “From here on out, those kinds of mistakes will really hurt us.”

Joyner returned to the field after a neck injury a few weeks ago.

“On defense, getting Josh Garrott and Blane Joyner back made a tremendous difference,” Russo said.

The offense drew some praise from Russo.

“Our offensive line graded the best they have all year,” he said. “Coach Thomas has them gelling at the right time of the season. I thought Britt Lawrence and Andy Barns’ play was outstanding.”

Dalrymple is getting better as a tailback each week, according to Russo.

“Both he and Bateman (Greenlee) did well managing their packages from the quarterback position,” Russo added. “ We came out of this non-district game completely healthy and that is good because of the significance of this week.”

North Delta will be on the road Friday to play the final district game of the regular season against West Memphis Christian. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.