By Brad Greer

There was good news and bad news for Lee, Ark. Friday night against North Delta.

The good news was Lee scored on the first and last series of the game. Unfortunately for the Cougars the rest of the night belonged to the Green Wave.

Led by Taylor Morris’ 176 yards and four touchdowns, the No. 4 ranked Green Wave eased past Lee 41-12 on a cold, wet windy night in Marianna, Ark.

With the victory, North Delta improved to 6-2 on the season while Lee remained winless at 0-7.

The Green Wave wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as quarterback Tyler Pirtle raced 66 yards on the third play from scrimmage. William Dean booted the point after attempt for a 7-0 North Delta lead.

Lee retaliated with a 14-play, 59-yard drive that was capped off by a Jacob Simmons two-yard run with 2:29 left in the first quarter that made the score 7-6 after Simmons was stopped on the two-point conversion.

Austin Hagstrom’s 48-yard kickoff return to the Cougar 18 set up North Delta’s next score as Morris raced into the end zone on the following play to  give the Wave a 14-6 lead.

With the wind and rain pelting down, North Delta extended its lead to 34-6 at halftime with three touchdowns in the second quarter. Morris added his second touchdown of the night with a 64-yard run with 11:37 remaining in the half to make the score 21-6 after Dean’s successful PAT.

On the following series, North Delta marched 94 yards on 11 plays as Morris scampered 27 yards to score. The drive was set up on runs of 26 and 16 yards by Pirtle.

Hagstrom put the finishing touches on a final drive of the first half with a 42-yard scoring run with :05 seconds left before intermission. Consecutive holding calls negated touchdown runs of 79 and 75 yards by Pirtle before Hagstrom’s scoring jaunt.

North Delta’s ground game pounded out 244 of their 389 yards rushing in the second quarter alone. The Green Wave tallied 382 yards of total offense on the night despite running only 24 plays in the game.
Defensive linemen Tyler Hardin set up North Delta’s final touchdown in the third quarter with a blocked punt which was recovered by Bradley Booth at the Lee 41-yard line. Morris added his final touchdown with a 26-yard run with Dean adding the PAT to make the score 41-6.

Reeves Bennett tacked on Lee’s final score with a 20-yard run with 2:56 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Pirtle followed Morris in the rushing column with five carries for 113 yards while Hagstrom added three carries for 90 yards.

Bailey Sullivant registered two carries for 10 yards and Hunter Baker contributed with three rushes for three  yards. Skyler Lawson had one carry for minus three yards.

Lee managed 139 yards of offense on the evening as Simmons led the way with 93 yards on 23 carries.
North Delta returns to Division 1-AA play Friday night by traveling to Carroll for a 7 p.m. kickoff.