North Delta football

Published 12:00 am Friday, September 28, 2007

ND and TIL to face off in district matchup

By Angie Ledbetter

The North Delta Green Wave (3-2, 1-0) will travel to Tunica tonight to take on the Tunica Blue Devils (3-2, 0-1) in a district game.

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The Green Wave will be looking to get back into the win column after last week’s 41-20 loss to non-conference foe Marshall Academy.

North Delta hopes to keep the win streak going over Tunica after last year’s 26-6 win on September 29.

In district 1A action, Marvell is in first place with a record of 2-0.  Desoto is next in line with a record of 2-1. North Delta has a record of 1-0.  Tunica and West Memphis are tied with a record of 0-1 and Delta is in last place with a record of 0-2.

All teams will be in district action tonight. The Green Wave will need to win this district game to remain a contender when it comes to being in the playoffs.  

Desoto and Marvell will be in a battle tonight when they play each other at Marvell for the lead in the district.  Delta and West Memphis will be playing at West Memphis.

The Blue Devils are coming off a 28-0 shutout by Winona Christian last Friday night.  On September 14, Desoto shut them out 12-0.   The Blue Devils won their first three games. They opened their season defeating Deer Creek 36-31.  The second week, they defeated Calhoun City 27-0 and they defeated Greenville Christian 41-12 the third week.

The Blue Devils will showcase a team of 17 players which includes five seniors, eight juniors and four sophomores. One difference about this team of 17 are the three sets of brothers who help make up the Blue Devils.

Dave, No. 72 and Doug McLean, No. 60 are both sophomore offensive linemen.  

Chris Kimbrell, No. 30 is a junior running back and his brother, Charles, No. 10, is a sophomore running back.  Barlett Graves, No. 32 is a junior running back and his brother, Robert, No. 5, is a junior split end.

The quarterback will be No. 7 Perry Turner, a sophomore. Kicking the ball will be No. 38 Kaleb Brown, a senior and Chris Kimbrell, No. 30, a junior. Other key players to watch will be Cody Simpson, No. 80, Jared Fiorto, No. 20, the Kimbrell brothers, and the Graves brothers.

“Tunica is kind of on a slide and hopefully, they don’t get back on track this week either,” said head coach Richard Russo.  “After watching the film, we’re real excited. We think that we match up well with them.”  

Russo is also upbeat that some players are coming off injured reserved.

“That should really help our chances on our team’s chemistry,” he said.

Tunica’s quarterback was probably one of the best junior high quarterbacks that Russo said he had ever seen last year when he was in ninth grade.

Tunica also brings a solid offensive back field with the  fullback, tailback and wingback putting up good numbers running the football.

“They’re a running team so you can’t let them win on first and second down,” Russo said. “You have to keep them in a third and long situation, taking them out of their identity.”

North Delta is finished playing with the 2A schools this year.

“It’s all apples and apples no,” Russo said.

With only six games left in the regular season for the Green Wave, four of them are district games.

The pep rally for the team will be at 2:20 in the school gym today. Kickoff for the game is at 7:30 p.m.

Directions to Tunica Institute of Learning:  584 Academy Dr., Tunica, MS  (72.6 miles/1 hour 13 minutes)

Take I-55 North toward Memphis, go 38.6 miles. Merge onto MS-304 W via exit 283 toward Tunica, go 14.8 miles. Merge onto US-61 S via exit on the left toward Tunica, go 16.1 miles.  Turn right onto Academy Drive.  School is at the end of the road.