Stifling defense lifts Northpoint

Northpoint football coach Greg Wallace didn’t want to talk about being undefeated or about the region championship his team secured Friday night at Harding.

Instead, Wallace’s thoughts were on a welldeserved celebration.

“I just want to get a cheeseburger and lie down,” Wallace laughed.

Buy one for everyone on defense, coach.

Northpoint, ranked ninth in the The Commercial Appeal’s Dandy Dozen, used a stout defensive effort against one of the area’s most explosive groups of playmakers and defeated the host Lions 12-7.

The victory extends Northpoint’s record to 9-0 but more importantly clinched the regular-season Division 2-A West Region championship and most likely home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Harding (6-2, 2-1) got into the Northpoint red zone four times Friday but didn’t score until Marquavious Moore punched it in from nine yards with 2:13 to go in the game.

That made it 12-7, but the Trojans’ Reid Haberstroh pounced on an onside kick.

RGBORKOYKMGNorthpoint then picked up a first down on a Christian Saulsberry run and ran out the clock.

“We’re not the biggest or the strongest,” said Wallace, whose team concludes the regular season against Fayette-Ware on Oct. 30. “But we’re mean and nasty.”

The meanest and nastiest of all the Trojans was senior defensive end Tyree Bryant, a 6-2, 230-pounder who was in on seemingly every big play.

Northpoint got the only points of the first half when Saulsberry capped a 63-yard drive with a 13-yard run, his 19th touchdown of the season.

That drive was set up by an interception by the Trojans’ Jamison Patterson after the Lions had driven to the Northpoint 9-yard line.

Harding put together another nice drive to open the third quarter, using a 27-yard pickup by Moore to reach the Trojans’ 14. But Northpoint forced a four-and-out and then responded with an 86-yard drive that made it 12-0. Nelson Farbizius scored from 11 yards.

And in the fourth quarter, Harding recovered a fumble after a huge hit by Keilan Hulton on Adam McPherson but came away scoreless once again after going fourand-out from the 15.

Columbus 20, Southaven 10:

West Point 47, Lake Cormorant 21:

Center Hill 49, Saltillo 7:

Clarksdale 22, Lewisburg 21:

FRIDAY’S GAMES: