CABOT -- Senior tailback Hunter Pendleton and senior quarterback Tre' Norwood combined for 228 rushing yards and three touchdowns in Fort Smith Northside's 35-21 victory over Cabot in 7A-Central action Friday night at Panther Stadium.
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The Grizzlies (6-2, 5-1 7A-Central) ran for 326 yards against the Panthers (6-3, 3-3), who lost for the third time in four games.
Pendleton rushed 15 times for 115 yards and two touchdowns (1 and 35 yards). His 1-yard touchdown run gave Northside the lead for good, 21-14, with five seconds left in the first half.
Northside put the game away when Pendleton ran 35 yards for a touchdown, and a 35-14 lead, with 3:10 left to play.
Norwood, who has orally committed to Louisville, ran 9 times for 113 yards and a 10-yard touchdown to stretch Northside's 21-14 halftime lead to 28-14 with 9:53 left in the third quarter.
Northside, coming off a 35-28 last-second loss to league-leading North Little Rock, trailed 7-0 after one quarter.
"We were flat," Grizzlies coach Mike Falleur said. "I was worried about that all week, by the way we practiced. But we got it going."
Cabot ran for 273 yards, but had five turnovers. Trailing 28-14, it lost a fumble at the Northside 8 with 1:25 left in the third quarter.
Senior quarterback Jarrod Barnes directed the Panthers on a time-consuming touchdown drive to open the game, but didn't play in the second quarter (ankle).
Barnes, who was injured earlier this month, played most of the second half and finished with only 35 rushing yards on 10 carries.
"The turnovers hurt us again," Cabot coach Mike Malham said. "Offensively, I thought we did a good job without the turnovers. Defensively, they gashed us. That No. 11 (Norwood) is a player, boy."
Cabot senior halfback Austin Morse ran 14 times for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns (14 and 6 yards). He also had a 78-yard kickoff return to set up his 14-yard touchdown run, which made it 14-14 with 1:43 left in the first half.
Cabot opened the game with a 17-play, 65-yard touchdown drive.
Senior fullback Easton Seidl capped the seven-minute, 30-second possession (none of the 16 running plays gained more than 8 yards) with a 1-yard run with 4:30 remaining in the first quarter.
Seidl ran 20 times for 99 yards.
Cabot had a chance for a two-touchdown cushion, but Morse lost a fumble at the Northside 29 with 10:19 remaining in the first half.
The Grizzlies then moved 71 yards in five plays for the tying score - a 15-yard run by senior wide receiver Kendrick Thomas with 9:21 remaining in the first half.
All five running plays on the drive resulted in first downs.
Sophomore tailback Derrick Wise, on a late option pitch from Norwood, ran 5 yards around right end for another touchdown to to make it 14-7 with 2:44 left in the first half.
The 19-yard drive came after Cabot botched an attempt to punt following a high snap.
Morse scored Cabot's final touchdown on a 6-yard run with 35 seconds left in the game.
Northside finished with a 358-315 advantage in total yardage.
Sports on 10/29/2016