Northside a dominant winner against Cave Spring

Northside quarterback Dominic Dunnaville and his teammates picked up right where they left off from last week’s opening game on Friday night.

Dunnaville threw for 126 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Vikings to a dominating 44-0 win over Cave Spring in the Knights’ home opener.

The Vikings’ performance followed an opening week 33-10 victory over Amherst County in which Dunnaville threw four TD passes.

“This was a great win after the high from last week,” said Northside head coach Burt Torrence.

The game didn’t get off to a great start for the Vikings, however, as they fumbled the opening kickoff at their own 20. Northside’s defense then stepped up, holding the Knights without a first down and forcing a field goal attempt that was no good.

The opening defensive stand set the tone for the night as Northside’s defense allowed just five first downs on the evening. Three of those were results of Vikings’ defensive penalties.

“We knew going into this season that we would be strong on the defensive side of the ball,” said Torrence.

With the defense in shutdown mode, Dunnaville led the offense with both his feet and arm.

On Northside’s opening drive Dunnaville scampered 61 yards to put the Vikings in scoring position. He then hit receiver Austin Fisher with a 6-yard scoring strike to put Northside up 7-0 at the 7:34 mark of the first quarter.

Dunnaville followed that with two more first half scores to different receivers. Harold Buckner and Sam Krizner each had touchdown catches in the second period. Krizner’s came in the final two minutes on a 61-yard bomb down the Northside sideline to give the Vikings a commanding 21-0 lead.

“We had good blocking and receivers running the right routes. All I had to do was just get them the ball,” said Dunnaville. “The offensive line came into practice this week playing great and it all starts with the [offensive] line.”

Dunnaville was not sacked in the game, but his 61-yard first quarter scamper was his only big run on the night. According to Cave Spring head coach Tim Fulton this was part of the Knights’ defensive strategy.

“We didn’t want to pressure him. We wanted to contain him and let him throw, but that’s a dual edge sword,” said Fulton.

Torrence agreed with Fulton’s assessment of his quarterback.

“If you blitz him he will kill you with his feet, but if you stay back we’ve got enough speed on the edges that our receivers will get open.”

Northside 7 17 13 7—44

Cave Spring 0 0 0 0— 0

NO — Fisher 6 pass from Dunnaville (Large kick)

NO —Buckner 14 pass from Dunnaville (Large kick)

NO — Krizner 61 pass from Dunnaville (Large kick)

NO — FG Large 35

NO — Krizner 12 run (Large kick)

NO — Jackson 21 pass from Culicerto (kick failed)

NO — Cunningham 2 run (Murray kick)

NO CS

First downs 15 5

Yards rushing 209 39

Passes C-A-I 12-24-0 4-13-2

Yards passing 162 18

Penalties-yards 6-50 3-15

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Punts-average 2-45 6-36

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Northside, Jackson 6-32, Dunnaville 4-74, Roberts 3-10, Krizner 3-34, Plunkett 1-5, Cunningham 4-28, Hurt 1-2, Wampler 1-4, Porterfield 1-3, Conn 1-17. Cave Spring, Roach 12-32, Emery 9- (-16), Rice 3-8, Curtis 3-10, Cash 1-4, Smith 1-1.

PASSING — Northside, Dunnaville 9-18-0-126, Culicerto 3-6-0-36. Cave Spring, Emery 4-12-2-18, Tate 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING — Northside, Fisher 2-16, Plunkett 2-16, Buckner 2-17, Krizner 3-68, Jackson 2-40, Wampler 1-5. Cave Spring, Albritton 3-16, Ball 1-2.

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