NBC powers past Hamilton

COLUMBUS » With Amir Stevenson and Wil Mesa, the Northern Burlington football team found a thunder and lightning combination worth keeping an eye on.

The duo combined for 169 rushing yards and the Greyhounds ran over Hamilton West, 28-21, on Saturday afternoon in front of a sizable Homecoming crowd.

“Running was going to be everything for us today,” said Mesa, who served as the thunder is this duo, rushing nine times for 53 yards. “If we can run on this team, we could beat this team. We had to pound the ball.”

Stevenson carried 22 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

NBC (2-4) controlled the clock with three long touchdown drives based mostly on the rushing of Stevenson, Mesa and Tommy Hill (5-for35) with an occasional pass mixed in. They Greyhounds had scoring drives of 89 and 61 yards in the second half.

“In the last few games, we’ll have those kind of drives and fail, but we kept pushing through,” Mesa said. “We tried to break their spirits. We saw them starting to argue and then that’s when they broke down mentally.”

Without injured quarterback Hezekiah Patterson, the Hornets (3-3) had four different players attempt a pass. Junior Eddie Fennell fared the best of that group, completing 11-of-16 throws for 118 yards and a touchdown.

Trailing 21-7 with 55 seconds let in the third quarter after Cameron Clauser hooked up with Mesa on a 12-yard touchdown pass, Hamilton dipped into its bag of tricks and answered on a 55-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Boswell to Chris Charles.

Boswell took a lateral from Fennell and hit a wideopen Charles for the score.

“Any time you (are missing) a quarterback who has started every game for you the last two and a half years, it’s time to see what your team is made of,” Hornets coach Tom Hoglen said. “Gut-check time. These guys worked hard, prepared and got ready for the game. I thought all three quarterbacks did some good things today.”

Barry Ndeh and Charles also saw time under center, although Charles is much more effective as a wide receiver where he hauled in eight balls for 107 yards and two scores.

The Greyhounds also used two quarterbacks — Clauser and Michael Caloiaro — and gave them safe throws to avoid mistakes. Clauser was 5-of-5 for 92 yards and a touchdown. He also scored on a one-yard keeper for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Stevenson punctuated a 61-yard drive after Hamilton got within 21-14 with a fouryard run at the 6:46 mark of the fourth quarter.

Mesa also finished with four receptions for 53 yards to give him 106 total yards on 13 touches.

Hamilton (3-3) No. Burl. (2-4) First Quarter NBC — Second Quarter NBC — H— Third Quarter NBC —

Mesa 12 pass from Clauser (Edwards pass from Clauser) Charles 55 pass from Boswell (Reyes kick)

H—

Clauser 1 run (Hopps kick)

Stevenson 11 run (kick failed) Boswell 13 run (Reyes kick)

Fourth Quarter NBC — H— 0 7 7 6 7 8 7 —21 7 —28

Stevenson 4 run (Hoops kick) Charles 16 pass from Fennell (Reyes kick)