By Brad Greer

The old cliché ‘a good defense is a good offense’ never became so evident Friday as in North Delta’s first round playoff game against Oak Hill Academy.

The Green Wave forced four first half turnovers, three in the first quarter alone, to jump to a  28-0 lead in route to a 42-14 victory over the Raiders.

North Delta (9-2) will now advance to the North AA State second round where they will host River Oaks, La. Friday night at 7 p.m. River Oaks, who elimitated the Wave from last year’s playoffs, defeated Leake 46-39 Friday night.

“Our defense has been kind of shaky the past few games but we wanted to come out tonight and make a statement and create some turnovers and give our offense good field position to work with,“ said senior defensive back Brett Harrington, who recovered two fumbles and intercepted a pass on the night.

After forcing Oak Hill to three-and-out on the opening possession, the North Delta offense went to work starting on their own 24-yard line. Austin Hagstrom busted a 33-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage. Three plays later, quarterback Tyler Pirtle scooted 25 yards on a 3rd-and 9 from the Raider 41 to keep the drive alive.

Pirtle later scored from one yard out to give North Delta a 7-0 lead with 7:22 remaining in the first quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, Harrington pounced on a fumble at the Raider 11 to set up Hagstrom’s 11-yard run to increase the lead to 14-0 after William Dean added the point after.

The Green Wave defense yet again set up another score as Tyler Beard intercepted a Riley Pierce pass at midfield. After a 36-yard run by Pirtle moved the ball to the Raider nine, Taylor Morris blasted in from two yards out two plays later, making the score 21-0 with 3:22 left in the first quarter.

North Delta capped off the first barrage as Hagstrom raced 37 yards for his second touchdown of the night with 2:11 remaining for a 28-0 Wave lead. The drive was set up as Harrington recovered another fumbled kickoff by the Oak Hill special teams.

The Green Wave kept the pressure on in the second quarter with a pair of Pirtle touchdown passes to Hagstrom and Sam Copeland to close out the scoring.

“I felt like our team came out with a lot of energy tonight so therefore the bye week did not hurt us. We were upbeat and I just had a good feeling during warm ups just by looking into their eyes we were ready to play tonight,“ said North Delta head coach Brandon Ciaramitaro.

“Our defense set the tone early by forcing a couple of quick turnovers that led to a couple of quick scores. We made a couple of moves on that side of the ball that should help us later on,” said Ciaramitaro.

Oak Hill avoided the shutout with a  pair of touchdown runs by Drew Riley in the third quarter.
The game was called with 6:37 left in the fourth quarter after Oak Hill’s Jeb Stevens suffered a neck injury and was airlifted by helicopter to the hospital.

North Delta ended the game with 281 yards of total offense while holding the Raiders to 143 yards.

Hagstrom led all rushers with 89 yards on seven carries while catching one pass for 59 yards and a touchdown. Pirtle followed with 78 yards on four carries  and 2-of-4 passing for 77 yards through the air and two touchdowns.

Morris pushed his season rushing total to 1,045 yards with  four carries for 45 yards and a touchdown. Bailey Sullivant chipped in with two carries for nine yards. Freshman Baker West added two carries for minus four yards.

Morris also led the Green Wave defense with five tackles from his linebacker position. Tyler Hardin and Hunter Pitcher followed with four stops each. Neil Patel and Will Magee also chipped in with three tackles each.