Northmor running back Carson Campbell tallied three touchdowns in his team’s win over Cardington Friday night.
Rob Hamilton | Morrow County Sentinel
Northmor clinched a share of their first football league championship in 42 years Friday night when they defeated visiting Cardington 49-6 to improve to 9-0, 6-0 in KMAC play.
The last league championship for the Golden Knights came in 1982, making Friday’s celebration a long overdue one for the home crowd.
“These guys have worked so hard, these coaches have worked so hard, these players have worked so hard,” said head coach Scott Armrose after the win. “They deserve this; they earned it. It was not easy, it took us some time, but hey — it’s only 42 years.”
In picking up the win, the Golden Knights scored on all four of their first half possessions and added a turnover for another touchdown. After forcing a three-and-out on Cardington’s first possession, they quickly struck as A.J. Bower connected with Jax Wenger for a 51-yard scoring pass that gave Northmor a 7-0 lead early in the opening period.
The Pirates would get a 13-yard run by Wyatt Denney on their next possession, but turned the ball over on downs near midfield after not being able to convert a fourth-and-two. Cardington coach Ryan Goetzman said that he was hoping his team could duplicate what Mount Gilead had done against Northmor the past week as far as controlling the ball and keeping it out of Northmor’s hands.
“We tried the Mount Gilead recipe and tried to play keep-away and just didn’t do it,” he said. “Gilead laid it our for us and, unfortunately, we just didn’t execute it. Coach Armrose did an unbelievable job over here. Those guys are rolling well — 9-0 and they just won the league for the first time since 1982. We knew we were going to try to play spoiler for that, but unfortunately, we didn’t.”
Armrose noted that, after that close call against the Indians, his team was determined not to let that happen again.
“The Mount Gilead game was a wake-up call for all of us,” he said. “We got more focused and more determined and we learned a lot from that and I think we corrected a lot of those things tonight.”
On their second possession, Northmor focused on their running game and kept the ball on the ground for seven of eight plays as they went 48 yards and got a short scoring run by Carson Campbell to move in front 14-0. After getting the ball back after forcing a Pirate punt, the duo of Campbell and Cowin Becker took the ball from the Northmor 32 to Cardington’s 16 before Bower hit Bo Landin for a 16-yard pass to make it a 21-point game with 10:10 left in the second.
Armrose noted that having two talented backs in Campbell and Becker has been huge for his team this year.
“That’s what’s great about those two in the backfield,” he said. “We kept a lot of mileage off their legs, too. Last year, Campbell had to carry the bulk of the load and he was hurting there come playoff time. Neither of those guys have really carried the load in the running game and our offensive line is opening up holes for both of them and it’s a really nice one-two punch, especially in the backfield at the same time.”
Cardington would follow with what was looking to be a successful drive. Starting from their own 20, it looked like it would end after getting one first down, but Denney pulled off a successful fake punt with a 19-yard pass to Fisher Schuman that moved the ball to the Pirate 47.
The junior back then played a big role in the team moving to the Golden Knight 35, but Northmor’s defense came up huge, as Wenger picked off a Journey Williamson pass and took it back all the way.
Things would get worse for Cardington, as a Denney fumble was recovered by Northmor, who quickly capitalized with a 45-yard scoring play from Bower to Wenger to cap a one-minute stretch that saw the Golden Knight lead jump from 21 to 35 points.
“We talked…even the interception wasn’t the end of the world,” said Goetzman. “What was the end of the world was it got taken back to the house for six points. We’ve got to find ways to just scratch and claw. We’ve got our big one next week, so we have to get back to work tonight and try to beat Gilead.”
Northmor would add to their lead with the second half being played with a running clock, as their two drives after intermission ended with Campbell touchdowns of four and one yards. Cardington then finished the game with a 13-play drive that concluded with a Williamson dive for six points.
After falling to Northmor to become 3-6, 1-5 in league play, Cardington now has their rivalry game with Mount Gilead to try to close out the season on a positive note. For Goetzman, the recipe is simple.
“Short memory, get back to work and try to finish off our season on a high note,” he said.
The Golden Knights have the chance to make history. If they can claim victory on the road against winless Loudonville, they’ll have sole possession of the KMAC crown and also have a perfect regular season to their name. Armrose expects his team to be fired up for that contest.
“They’re all big games,” he said. “They’ve all been big games all year. We’ve had our sights set on doing some things that have never been done here or haven’t been done here in a long time. Every week’s been a big game and we’ve done a really nice job of being focused on one week at time and Loudonville’s no different. We’re going to be totally locked in on them and focused on them and we’re going to try to get better.”
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
