North Delta falls on the road to Chiefs

By Brad Greer
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once said, ‘everyone has a gameplan … until they get hit in the mouth.’
North Delta got introduced to good ol’ fashion smash mouth football Friday as Magnolia Heights used a potent rushing attack to dispose of the Green Wave 33-18 at Senatobia Friday night.
Sophomore running back Garrin Windham ran 30 times for 228 yards and three touchdowns as the Chiefs grounded out 333 yards rushing on 49 attempts as they improved to 3-5 on the season.
“We knew what they (Magnolia Heights) were going to do, we just could not stop them. They were just better than us tonight,”said North Delta head coach Mac Aldison. “ Offensively, we moved the ball well at times and hung around we just didn’t make the key plays on defense to get off the field,”
said Aldison.
Senior quarterback Cole Devazier threw for two touchdowns and ran for another to pace North Delta who fell to 6-2 on the season. Devazier completed 18-of-30 passes for 204 yards while rushing for 41 yards on 12 carries.
North Delta interestingly enough took a 6-0 lead on the opening possession as Devazier scampered 14 yards to paydirt that capped off a 16-play; 71-yard drive that took 5:32 off the clock.
Magnolia Heights wasted little time tieing things up on its first series as five straight running plays produced 65 yards with Ford Wilson scoring on a three-yard run to knot the game at 6-6 after the PAT missed wide left.
The score stayed that way until midway through the second quarter before Magnolia Heights’ Bo Young intercepted a Devazier pass on the Chief 25. Magnolia Heights once again used its powerful offensive line to march 75 yards, all on the ground, as Windham scored his first of three touchdowns on a four-yard run for a 12-6 Chief lead after another PAT failed.
Magnolia Heights added to its lead in the waiting seconds of the first half as Garrett Chance corralled a 15-yard tipped pass from quarterback Levi Lipscomb that resulted into a touchdown with 52 seconds left before halftime. Lipscomb then connected with Wilson to complete the two-point conversion to give the home team a 20-6 advantage at halftime.
The Chiefs looked to blow the game open as the second half got underway as Windham spun off two would-be tacklers on his way to a 33-yard scoring run to extend the margin to 27-6 with 10:29 left in the third quarter.
North Delta showed signs of life on its following series as Harris Cole returned the ensuing kickoff 19 yards to the Chief 48. Later in the drive and facing a 4th-and-goal from the Magnolia Heights four, Devazier scrambled his way around before finding Luke Daniels in the endzone to close the margin to 27-12 after the conversion failed.
Magnolia Heights tacked on its final score the same way it started as 11 consecutive running plays produced a eight-yard run by Windham gave the Chiefs a commanding 33-12 cushion.
The Green Wave ended its scoring in the fourth quarter as Devazier connected with Tyler Holland on a 25-yard strike with 2:32 remaining.
North Delta ended the game with 297 yards of total offense while Magnolia Heights tallied 367 yards.
Kaleb Joiner paced the Green Wave in the rushing column with ten carries for 53 yards while adding two receptions for nine yards.
Holland led North Delta in receiving with five catches for 98 yards. Daniels followed with four receptions for 36 yards. Jimmy Manues also added four catches for 29 yards while Cole chipped in with three catches for 32 yards.
Dalton Cook and Jordan Cox led the Green Wave defense with six tackles each.
Magnolia Heights held a 20-14 margin in first downs and was penalized six times for 60 yards while North Delta was flagged 10 times for 85 yards.
“We have two important games left to be played and it will be interesting to see how our kids bounce back next week against a very good Marshall team that shut out Magnolia Heights last week,” said Aldison.