Roeder, Panthers Romp Raiders

NAPPANEE - The NorthWood Panthers started Friday night's football game just as they were expected to - Charlie Roeder ran in a 37-yard touchdown after just 46 seconds to take a 7-0 lead with 11:14 left in the first quarter. The game was supposed to be a blowout from the get-go.

Someone forgot to tell Northridge that they were supposed to roll over and let NorthWood kick them all over the field.

The Raiders kept fighting and quarterback Jody Weldy scored a touchdown after Sean Berkey recovered a NorthWood fumble to tie the score at 7-7 by the end of the first quarter.

The Raiders even went so far as to take the lead 10-7 with 9:29 left in the second quarter after recovering yet another Panther fumble and converting it into a Bobby Raatz kick. That's where the Cinderella story ends.

The NorthWood Panthers answered the Raiders' wake-up call and scored two touchdowns in the next nine minutes to take the halftime lead 21-10.

At the beginning of the third quarter, Northridge still had a glimmer of hope. Down by 11 points with posession of the ball to start the second half, the Raiders still had time to score and pull off possibly the biggest upset of the year. That glimmer of hope was quickly overshadowed as NorthWood's Brad Greenlee recovered a fumble on the second play of Northridge's first drive to take some of their momentum away. However, the Panthers turned around and gave the ball back to the Raiders on downs after just four plays. After gaining only one yard in four plays, Northridge had to punt the ball, and NorthWood went in for the kill.

In 4:32, NorthWood scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to make the score 35-10.

Roeder pitched the ball to Lantzer for a 4-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to add insult to injury and reach the final score of 42-10. The Panthers had lived up to everyone's expectations and finished the game with a bang to reach blowout status.

NorthWood coach Rich Dodson was pleased with his team's defensive performance as they improved their record to 4-2 overall and 3-1 in NLC action. "We've been trying to stress the importance of a three-and-out defense to set the tone of the game, and we did that tonight."

NorthWood's offense plugged away to gain 300 rushing yards and 92 passing yards, along with 15 first downs.

NORTHWOOD 42 NORTHRIDGE 10

NorthWood 7 14 14 7- 42

Warsaw 7 3 0 0-10

Northridge NorthWood

First downs 9 15

Rushing yards 124 300

Passing yards 35 92

Comp.-Att.-Int. 3-7-1 8-15-1

Fumbles lost 1 2

Punts 5-33 1-21

Yards Penalized 25 15

First Quarter

NW - Charlie Roeder 37 run (Bill Mitschelen kick) 7-7 NW

NR - Jody Welty 1 run (Bobby Raatz kick) 7-7

Second Quarter

NR - Raatz 26 field goal 10-7 NR

NW - Aaron Huber 6 run (kick failed) 13-10

NW - Chad Knisley 1 run (Blair Baumgartner pass from Roeder) 21-10 NW

NW - Huber 29 run (Mitschelen kick) 28-10 NW

Third Quarter

NW - Roeder 53 run (Mitschelen kick) 35-10 NW

Fourth Quarter

NW - Justin Lantzer 4 run (Mischelen kick) 42-10

Individual Leaders

Aaron Huber - NW -117 yards, 2 touchdowns

Charlie Roeder - NW - 84 yards, 2 touchdowns

Corey Brown - NW - 70 yards

Kurt Beier - NR - 52 yards