Calilien Grant breaks loose for a 70 yard touchdown run early in the second quarter.
Photos Ron Nunnari | Register-Herald
Brady Lupton hauls in a 49 yard touchdown pass from Deuce Cortner, his second TD reception of the night, to put Northmont up 24-0.
Unable to find an open receiver, backup quarterback Brice Staggs evades Beavercreek defensive lineman Kaleb Kam (50) while Jesse Fontenot provides blocking support that enabled Staggs to score on a 26 yard run.
Running back Terry Harrell runs for a first down late in the fourth quarter.
Cedric Works scores on a five yard reception to boost the Thunderbolts’ lead to 38-0.
CLAYTON — In the final regular season home game of 2023, Northmont erupted for 24 first quarter points en route to a lopsided 45-7 victory over Beavercreek.
Northmont improved to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in conference play while Beavercreek dropped to 2-7 and 0-6.
Brady Lupton started the scoring onslaught by catching a 30 yard touchdown pass from Deuce Cortner. On a two-point conversion play Cortner fired a pass to Cedric Works to put Northmont up 8-0 at 9:52 in the first quarter.
Cortner finished the game with 15 completions on 23 pass attempts for 206 yards and four touchdowns. Cortner leads the conference with 25 touchdown passes with 1,915 yards, 27 yards behind Tyrell Lewis of Wayne with 1,942 yards. Lewis has 19 TD passes.
Beavercreek fumbled on its first possession with Northmont recovering the loose ball at the Beavers’ 39. A few plays later Cortner hit Ivory with a seven yard TD pass. On the two-point conversion play Cortner pitched the ball to Lupton who tossed a pass to Santana Keys to put Northmont up 16-0.
Cortner threw a 49 yard touchdown pass to Lupton and a pass to Works on the two-point conversion to put the Thunderbolts up 24-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Calilien Grant (13 carries, 116 yards) scored on a 70 yard run at 9:58 of the second quarter with Cortner scoring on a two-point conversion run.
Cedric Works caught a five yard touchdown pass for Northmont and Jack Minnich scored on a five yard run for Beavercreek to make the score 38-7 at the end of the third quarter.
Backup quarterback sophomore Brice Staggs scored on a 26 yard run and Jon Warren’s kick made the final tally 45-7.
Northmont had 380 total yards while ‘Creek had 145. The T’bolts held a huge advantage in time of possession at 30:14 compared to the Beavers 17:46.
“We had an advantage in speed. Our defense is really-really fast and they give us a chance every week to put the other team in bad situations,” said Northmont coach Tony Broering. “Tonight, our offense scored on their first five drives. They had a great week of practice and I had a feeling they were going to play pretty well and they did.
“We still have a lot of guys banged up so we are missing a couple of starters on the offensive line and one of our best defensive linebackers is out, so we are trying to get everybody healthy for the playoffs,” Broering added.
The Thunderbolts conclude regular season play on Friday against back-to-back state runner-up Springfield, which is currently 4-5 overall and 3-3 in conference play.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Broering noted. “First of all, we have to go to their field, and it is always tough to play there on that little field that doesn’t have a good scoreboard. It is a very difficult place to play, so we will see. I haven’t watched any of their game films yet, and I haven’t been following them so I don’t know what is going on with them, but I will get started on that tomorrow.”
Reach Ron Nunnari by email: [email protected].
