Northside was determined to have a better start to last week's game than the Grizzlies did in the season opener.
While the Grizzlies didn't fall behind 19-0 like they did against Greenwood two weeks ago, they were in a tight encounter with Van Buren early on, as the score was tied at 7-all after the first quarter. But Northside was able to make several big plays in the next two quarters as the Grizzlies pulled away for a 42-14 win.
"I was pleased with our effort and we did a better job of blocking, then on defense, we really adjusted to what they were doing," Northside coach Mike Falleur said. "I felt good after that (third Van Buren) drive to really kind of hold them down, I don't think they got on our side of the 50 after that. The negative part of it was two turnovers, one (fumble) going into the end zone and the other at about their 25 and you can't do that, you've got to hold on to the football.
"I just liked that they took care of their business. Offensively, we kind of sputtered there for a couple of series but were able to put the game away and get a lot of kids in and get a big win that we needed to have."
The Grizzlies (1-1) return home this week to take on Pine Bluff in their final game before 7A-Central action starts next week.
Big-play touchdowns
Northside went in front to stay early in the second quarter. Before facing a third-and-10 at the Van Buren 12, the Grizzlies called a timeout. They knew what they wanted to do when they returned to the field, a pass to the end zone.
Quarterback Max Frazier launched it toward receiver Biyron McGrew, who went one-on-one with a Pointer defender before timing his jump in the end zone and coming down with the pass for the go-ahead TD as Northside went up, 14-7.
"I've been feeling it, I was doing it all summer, so it wasn't anything different," McGrew, a senior, said. "It was nice, though, it was a nice throw by Max and I just went up and got it. ... The defender was shorter than me and I don't really think he saw the ball, but I saw it so I went up and got it.
"I think it brought fire to the team. ... I think it just fired the team up."
Falleur said the TD was all part of the plan to make McGrew an integral part of the offense. He also caught a TD pass in last week's season-opening loss to Greenwood.
"Biyron starts on defense for us and does a really good job and then we bring him over (on offense)," Falleur said. "Number one, he can run and number two, he's long. So we bring him over and get him a certain amount of snaps on offense and that's a guy that (is capable of catching passes) in the end zone. He did a good job and Max did a good job getting it out there to where (McGrew) can get it."
But perhaps the biggest touchdown of the night came with Northside up, 21-7, in the third quarter. The Grizzlies were forced to punt, but Falleur called for a fake, with the ball being snapped to up-back Kedrick Thomas. Thomas then found plenty of running room as he was able to take it in for a 72-yard TD.
"It was 21-7 and we drive the ball down and we don't score at the end of the half because we fumbled the football, then we come out in the second half and drive it back down again, to the (Van Buren) 7 and we don't score any points," Falleur said. "We stopped them and they punt it to us and we're fixing to be three-and-out. ... I hadn't made up my mind we were going to fake punt, I had already seen they were going to come after it. I thought we needed something good to happen to get us going again, so I just decided to call it and crossed my fingers, hoping that it worked and it did, so that was big and it kind of put the game out of reach at that point."
Northside running back Hunter Pendleton also had a couple of big-play TDs, a 28-yard burst up the middle in the second quarter, as well as taking a screen pass from Frazier and going 61 yards in the third which put the Grizzlies up, 35-7.
The Southside Mavericks hit the trail Friday to Rogers, where they face an unknown Heritage team.
Like the Mavericks, first-year War Eagles coach Tony Travis' squad is 0-2.
"It's about us getting better, that's the bottom line, and all our focus is on Heritage," Southside coach Jeff Williams said. "We need to get a win, obviously. We have to go up there and get focused on Heritage, and then after that we have conference play."
The Mavericks have been outscored 103-34 the first two weeks of the season. The team has allowed four touchdowns of 40 yards or more.
"We've got to fix that," Williams said. "As a coaching staff we've got to get that fixed, and as players we've got to get that fixed. I thought we made some improvement from week 1 to week 2, but on a couple of those (Greenwood) drives we had some missed tackles.
"But in the second half, on third down, we could not get off the field. Third down is a different down than any other down."
Quarterback Graves Schmidly overcame a slow start by passing for 241 yards and a touchdown. Dylan Wyatt caught six passes
