By Brad Greer

Payback is, well, you know.

 Last season, Marshall Academy defeated North Delta 6-0 in route to the District 1-2A championship. Friday night was a different story however as a fired up Green Wave squad got a small measure of revenge on the Patriots by defeating Marshall 26-10 at Green Wave Field.

With the victory, North Delta takes over sole possession of first place in the district standings with a 2-0 record, 4-1 overall. Marshall meanwhile drops to 3-2 on the season and 1-1 in district.

Tres Brasell rushed for 116 yards on 23 carries and scored three touchdowns all while playing with a shoulder injury the senior sustained three weeks ago against Lee Academy. Brasell had scoring runs of six, five and two yards while adding one reception for 12 yards.

Marshall jumped out to a 3-0  lead as Chase Carpenter drilled a 34-yard field goal with 5:25 remaining in the first quarter.

The drive began after Aaron McAlexander picked off a Bryan Nickle pass at the Patriot 44 yard-line on the Green Wave’s initial possession of the game.

North Delta answered on its next drive however by marching 80 yards on six plays  that was capped by a Brasell six yard touchdown run. Marshall’s John Tomilinson blocked Kyle Devazier’s extra point attempt to make the score 6-3 at the 3:15 mark of the first period. The drive was kept alive by Nickle’s 50-yard run on second-and-four from the Green Wave 37.

The Patriots retook the lead midway through the second quarter on a Kevin Fitzpatrick one-yard run around the right end to finish a 13-play drive with Carpenter adding the extra point to give Marshall a 10-6 lead.

Perhaps the biggest drive of the night came with 1:09 remaining in the half as North Delta drove 60 yards in 10 plays to take a 12-10 halftime lead as Nickle hit Jim Tom Copeland on a nine-yard touchdown pass with no time showing on the clock. Nickle was then stopped  on the two-point conversion after running into an offensive line just short of the goal line.

“We wanted this one (the game) bad,“ said North Delta senior left tackle Anthony Pike. “Ever since last season when they beat us 6-0 this is the game we circled on our schedule. This win puts us in the driver’s seat in the district, but we cannot rest just on this game. We’ve got two more district games left and anything can happen. We just have to keep pushing through,” said Pike.

The score stayed the same until midway through the third quarter when the Green Wave defense came up with a huge play when Sy Pritchard picked off a Hank Owens pass at the Patriot five yard-line. Brasell then added his second touchdown of the game on a five-yard run on the next play from scrimmage to increase the lead to 19-10 after Devazier added the PAT.

With a noisy Green Wave student section led by Matthew Barefoot on their feet the entire game, North Delta put the game away with 2:27 remaining in the contest as Brasell added his final touchdown run of the night with a two-yard run on fourth down. After three straight penalties, the Wave faced a first and goal from the Patriot 31 before Brasell added runs of 12, 12 and six yards before cashing in on the scoring run.

North Delta finished the night with 273 total yards of offense which included 204 yards rushing and 69 yards passing. Nickle followed Brasell with 65 yards rushing on 13 carries and was 6-of-14 passing with two interceptions and one touchdown.

Micheal Magee added two carries for 14 yards and one reception for 11 yards. John Cody Dalrymple chipped in with three carries for nine yards to go along with two catches for 12 yards. Copeland also had two receptions for 34 yards.

Magee led the Green Wave defense with eight tackles and two quarterback sacks while Pritchard and sophomore linebacker Taylor Morris added seven stops each.

Marshall was held to 91 yards rushing and 240 yards of total offense by North Delta. Owens finished the night with 11-of-22 passing for 149 yards and one interception to go with 60 yards on 13 carries. Tomilison followed with 28 yards on six totes. Chase Ferrell led the receiving corps with five catches for 53 yards while Tomilinson added four catches for 87 yards.

The Patriots were penalized 13 times for 99 yards while North Delta was flagged eight times for 61 yards.

North Delta will step out of district play Friday night when they travel to Marvell, Ark. for a 7:30 kickoff.