Fort Smith Northside leaned on defense and special teams in a 19-0 victory over Little Rock Central in 7A-Central action Friday night at Quigley-Cox Stadium in Little Rock.
[HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD: Full results + recaps, photos and more]
Senior Chuy Parga kicked field goals of 43 and 38 yards in the first half, and the Grizzlies (3-1, 2-0 7A-Central) limited the Tigers (3-2, 0-2) to 186 total yards in recording their second consecutive shutout.
"They just physically beat us," Central Coach Ellis "Scooter" Register said. "They're good up front on both sides. We knew they were really good defensively."
Northside led 6-0 at halftime after Parga kicked a 38-yard field goal with 57 seconds remaining in the second quarter and a 43-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.
The second field goal came one play after Parga, at linebacker, recovered a fumble at the Central 26.
Parga also punted four times for a 46-yard average, with one downed at the Central 1 in the second quarter.
The Grizzlies extended the halftime lead to 12-0 on their first possession of the second half, a seven-play, 65-yard drive capped by senior tailback Robert Wilkerson's 21-yard run with 6:29 remaining in the third quarter.
Northside put the game out of reach on Wilkerson's 1-yard touchdown run with 6:01 remaining to play.
The 11-play, 53-yard drive was set up when Central sophomore tailback Oscar Adaway was swarmed for a 4-yard loss on a fourth-and-3 run from the Grizzlies' 43.
Adaway, whose second-quarter fumble was recovered by Parga following a jarring hit, finished with 63 rushing yards on 17 carries.
Junior quarterback Jacob Howard had an 83-yard touchdown pass to Adaway erased because of a holding penalty on Central's first possession of the game.
Pressured much of the game, Howard completed 6 of 25 passes for 68 yards.
"I don't know if we expect shutouts, but we expect to play really good defense," Northside Coach Mike Falleur said.
The Grizzlies finished with 300 total yards.
Senior tailback Hunter Pendleton ran 16 times for 59 yards. Senior Tre' Norwood, who started at quarterback, ran 5 times for 57 yards and completed 2 of 3 passes for 37 yards.
Senior quarterback Max Frazier completed 8 of 12 passes for 80 yards.
On Northside's final scoring drive, Frazier had a 40-yard touchdown run negated because of a holding penalty and an illegal block (Wilkerson did score eight plays later).
Northside drove to the Central 9 to open the game before losing a fumble.
"I've got to give them credit," Falleur said. "They play hard and got after it. But we can't do the things that we did offensively, hold, block in the back down field, just dumb things that stop us when we have big plays."
Northside, coming off a 29-0 victory at Bryant, has beaten Central three consecutive years.
Sports on 10/01/2016