Pickerington North pays back Liberty with blowout

POWELL — Pickerington North coaches are sure to furiously write down corrections with their red marking pens when they grade film of Friday night’s game against Olentangy Liberty.

The Panthers were penalized 15 times for 130 yards and quarterback Jimmy Weirick, usually a pinpoint passer, was intercepted three times.

What makes it scary for future opponents is that North still was a wrecking crew with Tyler Potts and Tyrik Carter returning interceptions for touchdowns and Ben Johnson blocking a punt to set up a TD in a 42-0 victory over the Patriots before a near-capacity crowd.

Weirick completed 15 of 26 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 51 yards.

“We have a really good team and our kids play hard and believe in one another,” coach Nate Hillerich said. “Our kids want to set a tone and make a statement about who we are at Pick North. When they can’t run the ball and we have guys in the secondary who can cover, it’s tough to run plays against our defense.”

The Panthers (4-1) paid back the Patriots (3-2) for a 33-28 loss last season.

On Friday, the final 15 minutes, 56 seconds were played with a running clock because of the 30-point margin rule.

The tone was set when North went 80 yards in six plays for a touchdown on its first drive. Jaylon Baylor caught a back-shoulder pass from Weirick for a 4-yard touchdown. The big play was a 55-yard catch by Ty Wiley to the 7-yard line in beating double-coverage.

North made it 14-0 when Nonso Uba capped an eightplay, 65-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run with 1:50 left in the first quarter.

The statement play came two plays later when Potts returned an interception 48 yards for a touchdown.

“Our defense is the strength of our team, and we know we can shut anybody down,” Potts said. “We knew coming into this game that defense was going to play a big part of the game.”

The senior class in particular wanted to get back at Liberty for last season’s loss.

“Yes, yes, yes, that was the main thing,” Potts said. “That loss last year really hurt us. This was one of our goals.”

Johnson blocked a punt and returned it to the Liberty 12 to set up a 2-yard run by Larry Martin that made it 28-0 with 4:43 left in the third quarter.

Forty-seven seconds later, Carter returned an interception 41 yards with some dazzling moves to make it 35-0.

“The defense took it into our hands to score points,” Carter said. “As a team, we just have things to prove to other teams and to show what we can do.”