LEWISBURG — It’s the game both schools circle on their schedule every season.
Typically, its played near the end of the season, but this season when the Cross County Conference reshuffled the schedule Tri-County North and Twin Valley South met in Week 3 of the high school football season, but the hype was still the same.
The result proved to be the same as it has been for nearly the past decade as well.
North (2-1) handled their rivals for the ninth straight time, cruising to a 36-7 win, on Friday, Sept. 7.
“This week was business a usual,” North coach Eric Wright said. “South always comes out and punches us in the mouth. It’s been a rivalry for many decades now. We have a saying ‘we better not lose to South.’ That’s the extra incentive that we give the kids throughout the week. They always get jacked up for this game.”
South’s last win in the rivalry was Oct. 9, 2009 — 18-0.
Since then North has dominated the series.
Liam Downing put North ahead in this one with a 5-yard TD run in the first quarter.
North added two more scores in the second as Brian Stinson scored touchdowns on 8 and 14-yard runs to give his team a 20-0 halftime lead.
South cut trimmed North’s lead to 20-7 on a 55-yard TD pass from Cade Cottingim to Tytus Woodgeard in the third quarter.
Stinson, who rushed for 196 yards, added his third score of the night on a 7-yard run in the fourth quarter to give North a 28-7 lead. North closed out the scoring when Braden Gray returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown.
North out-gained South 400-153. North racked up 312 yards on the ground.
South (1-2) passed for 153 and gained another 111 rushing.
“We thought we had some good looks tonight throwing the ball. We thought we could (move) throwing the ball a little big and we did when we scored. Coach Wright and his boys they’re a good ball club. They are going to win some games this year,” South coach Clint Bartlett said. “I was proud of our kids. They came out after being down 20-0 at the half and came out swinging. That says a lot. When you’ve got that fight that’s going to win you some ball games down the road. We’re going to build off the positives, fix the negatives and get ready to play National Trail next week.”
North will visit Covington on Friday, Sept. 14, while South will play host to National Trail. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. for both games.
