In the end, Noxapater was just bigger and faster than homestanding French Camp.
Noxapater used four big-play runs and a stingy defense to take a 26-0 win over French Camp on
Friday night.
The Tigers are now 3-3 on the season and will play at rival Nanih Waiya on Thursday night.
Noxapater head coach Caleb Kelly said he thought his team fought hard against a scrappy
French Camp group.
“I thought our kids played hard and were great on defense,” Kelly said. “I was proud of the fight
that they showed on Friday night. French Camp played hard and had a couple of long drives.
They had a 14-play drive that was impressive but at the end of the day, we made plays that was
hard for them to catch up with us.”
The first quarter featured five punts between the two teams before Noxapater finally got
something going.
The Tigers scored on the first play of the second quarter when JyKavius Riddle took the snap at
quarterback and raced 22 yards for a touchdown. A.J. Robertson scored on the two-point
conversion and the Tigers led 8-0.
After two more French Camp punts, Noxapater scored right before the half as Camerion Pankey
scored on a 57-yard touchdown run with 5:18 left in the first half.
French Camp went on an 11-play drive and drove to the Noxapater 17 before failing on fourth
down as the half expired.
“Coach Wright’s teams always play hard and are gritty kids,” Kelly said. “It was an 8-0 before we
scored with about five minutes left in the second quarter. They were in there fighting with us
but I think our speed was the difference. It played a major factor. We were able to get the edge
a couple of times and made some big plays.”
Noxapater got the ball to start the second half and again got a big play in the run game as
Pankey scored on a 38-yard run with 9:48 left in the third. The PAT failed and the Tigers led 20-
0.
French Camp then went on another long drive, this time stringing together 14 plays before
turning the ball over on downs at the Noxapater three.
From there, the Tigers added their last score as they went 97 yards in five plays as Pankey
scored on a 32-yard run on the second play of the fourth quarter. The try for two failed and the
Tigers led 26-0.
After French Camp turned the ball over on downs, the Tigers drove inside the French Camp 5
yards line on 11 plays and took a knee to end the game.
The Tigers again relied on the run game as they had 296 yards rushing and 15 passing for 311
yards of total offense. Pankey had a big night rushing with 212 yards and three TDs on 11
carries. A.J. Robertson had 55 yards on 14 carries while Riddle had 25 yards on two carries
Logan Sanborn was 2-of-5 passing for 15 yards.
On defense, J’Cameron Riley led the Tigers with 10 tackles while JyKavius Riddle had nine
tackles. Quen Stephens had eight tackles while Vontavious Triplett and T.K. Wilson each had
seven tackles. Pankey, Robertson, Kim Lewis and Zavion Harrington each had four tackles while
Andrew Harrington, J.J. Miller and Ryan Parker each had three tackles apiece.
