LINDEN — North Montgomery overcame a slow start on Friday night and downed Delphi 44-38.
The Class 3A No. 10 ranked Chargers spotted the Oracles a 14-0 lead after a quarter, but scored 22 unanswered points in the second quarter and never trailed again.
Donavan Haworth and Logan Kelly started the scoring fest with a 12-yard strike from the junior quarterback to the Chargers’ leading receiver with 8:11 left in the second quarter. North Montgomery tied the game at 14-14 with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Haworth to Kolton Scrimager at the 2:58 mark, before Haworth hooked up with Kelly and Scrimager again forom 52 and 41 yards out to push the Chargers ahead 30-20 at the half.
“We just kept talking to the kids,” North Montgomery football coach Josh Thompson said. “we’ve gotta keep playing, we’ve gotta dig ourselves out of this and we can’t get down, we’ve got to pick each other up. Our senior leadership right now is doing really well with some of those things.”
Haworth threw for four touchdowns (all in the second quarter) and 209 yards, while Kelly caught four passes for 95 yards and Scrimager five balls for 95 yards.
Delphi’s big play capability not only gave the Oracles an early lead, but helped them stay within striking distance of the Chargers the whole game.
Evan Fritz scored on a 65-yard run to start the game and caught an 84-yard pass from Jordan Roth to make it 14-0. The senior tailback added an 86-yard touchdown run just before half and led the Oracles with 324 yards of total offense.
Senior quarterback Jordan Roth hooked up with twin brother Jaden Roth for two 60+ touchdown passes in the second half, while Blake Sinks cashed in an 83-yard touchdown run. Delphi ran just 36 plays, scoring six touchdowns and never had a drive of more than three plays. The Oracles outgained the Chargers 538-473 in the loss.
“Obviously we got off to a slow start, and our defense struggled tonight and gave up some big plays, but we ask our kids to respond to things and that’s what they did this week. We had to tweak a few things. Obviously we had a short week of prep with the game switch.”
North Montgomery and Delphi learned of each other as opponents on Tuesday after Lebanon canceled on the Chargers and Sheridan canceled on the Oracles.
Fortunately the Chargers offense was clicking just as much as the Oracles in the second half. Haworth ran one in from 8-yards out and Jacob Braun had a five-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to put the Chargers up 44-20. Delphi’s late scores were too little too late as the Chargers recovered a pair of onside kicks.
Zak Searle helped balance out the North Montgomery offense with 171 rushing yards on 21 carries, while Braun added another 40 and Gage Galloway 35.
North Montgomery is 4-0 for the first time since 2009 and travels to Western Boone next Friday, while Delphi falls to 2-2 and travels to Tri-Central.
North Montgomery 44, Delphi 38
Score by quarters
Delphi 14 6 0 18 — 38
North Montgomery 0 30 6 8 - 44
Scoring:
First quarter
D Evan Fritz 65-yard run, Gavin Gleason kick, 10:16
D Fritz 84-yard pass from Jordan Roth, Gleason kick, 6:26
Second quarter
NM Logan Kelly, 11-yard pass from Donavan Haworth, run failed, 8:11
NM Kolton Scrimmager 4-yard pass from Haworth, Nathan Hood 2-pt conversion, 2:58
NM Kelly 52-yd. pass from Haworth, Searle 2-pt. conversion, 2:17
D Fritz 86-yd. run, kick failed, 2:00
NM Srimmager 41-yd. pass from Haworth, Haworth 2-pt. conversion, 1:32
Third quarter
NM Haworth 8-yd. run, pass failed, 6:49
Fourth quarter
NM Jake Braun 5-yd. run, Haworth 2-pt. conversion, 11:54
D Jaden Roth 60 pass from Jordan Roth, conversion failed, 10:28
D Blake Sinks, 83-yd. run, conversion failed, 4:36
D Jaden Roth 65-yd. pass from Jordan Roth, Kick blocked, 2:12
Game Statistics
NM D
Rushing: 48-264 19-327
Passing: 209 211
Total yards: 473 538
Turnovers 3 3
Penalties 7/50 8/85
Individual Statistics:
Rushing:
NM: Gage Galloway 8-35, Hayworth 11-16, Searle 21-171, Braun 8-40, Drew Norman 1-2
D: Jordan Roth 3-(-10), Peyton Roth 3-9, Evan 12-240, Sinks 2-87
Passing:
NM: Haworth 14-22-204-4 TDs
D: Jordan Roth 6-14-158 3 TDs
Receiving:
NM: Kelly 4-95, Scrimmager 5-85, Braun 2-16, Gabe Laws 1-(-3), Nick Norman 1-8, Team 1-8
D: Fritz 1-84, Jaden Roth 2-76, Zach Munson 1-45, Peyton Roth 3-6
