By Brad Greer

For North Delta it felt so nice they did it twice.

Led by another five touchdown performance from quarterback Tyler Pirtle, the North Delta Green Wave laid claim to their second straight District 1-AA championship with an overwhelming 40-19 road victory over Indianola Friday night.

The Green Wave have now won 11 of 12 district games dating from 2009.

With their seventh win in a row under its belt, North Delta, (9-1;4-0), will now host a first-round playoff game Nov.4 against a yet-to-be-determined District 2 runner-up.

Pirtle rushed for 101 yards on 16 carries while scoring on touchdowns runs of nine, two and one yards. The junior signal-caller was 8-of-12 passing for 147 yards and two touchdowns. Tailback Taylor Morris rushed the ball 20 times for 93 yards and one touchdown.

“After losing 15 seniors off of last year’s team, everybody said we were going to have a down year but I told the guys we have got a good nucleus and we are going to practice hard and get better each and every week. We talked about surprising people and right off the bat we beat a few teams so we have turned out to be a pretty good football team,“ said North Delta head coach Dan Werner.

The Green Wave took advantage of an early Indianola turnover on the second play of the game as Pirtle scored on a nine-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead after William Dean missed the point after.

Indianola answered with an eight-play, 58-yard drive that resulted in a four-yard scoring pass from Taylor Marlow to Dustin Roncali on fourth-and-goal that knotted the game at six.

The Green Wave regained the lead, 13-6, early in the second quarter on Pirtle’s one-yard run to cap a 43-yard drive.

After both teams exchanged punts, the Colonels drove to the North Delta 33 before turning the ball over on downs with 1:56 remaining in the first half.

The Green Wave then executed their two-minute offense to perfection by marching 68 yards on three plays before Pirtle hit Bailey Guckert in stride for a 40-yard touchdown pass with 1:09 left before halftime with Dean adding the PAT to give North Delta a 20-6 lead.

North Delta extended the lead to 27-6 on the opening possession of the second half as Pirtle connected with Colby Pirtle on a 36-yard scoring strike as Dean booted the PAT.

Indianola closed the margin to 27-13 midway through the third on a seven-yard run by Ashton Knight. The drive was set up by a Morris fumble on the North Delta 33-yard line.

The Green Wave put the game away with a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns as Pirtle dove in from two yards out on fourth-and-goal to give North Delta a 33-13 lead with 9:34 remaining. Morris later added a three-yard scoring run to make the score 40-13 after Dean’s successful point after.

Indianola scored on the game’s final play as Roncali raced in from four yards as the horn sounded.

North Delta totaled 370 yards of offense while holding the Colonels to 278 yards. The Green Wave rushed the ball 43 times for 223 yards compared to Indianola’s 116 yards on 36 attempts.

Marlow finished the night with 12-of-22 passing for 162 yards and two interceptions as Indianola turned the ball over three times. Roncali, who entered the contest with 734 yards was held to 74 yards on 19 carries by the Green Wave defense

Hunter Durham followed Pirtle and Morris in the rushing column with three carries for 12 yards while Guckert added two carries for 11 yards. Fullback Parker Jones chipped in with two carries for six yards.
Dean, Morris and Guckert all had two receptions for North Delta while Will Magee added one catch for 18 yards. Morris and Magee each added interceptions on defense while Hunter Pitcher led the team in tackles with six stops.

Blake Snyder followed with five tackles. Luke Latham registered four tackles while Brett Harrington and Guckert added three each. Kyle Devazier also added a fumble recovery for the North Delta defense.