High school football: North Summit bounces back to beat rival

The Braves had not tasted defeat since the 2A semifinals in 2006 and had grown quite accustomed, since that time, to dominating one opponent after another on both sides of the ball.

The major question going into their annual grudge match with archrival South Summit was whether or not North Summit could bounce back.

"We hadn't had a loss in 17 games and I wondered how we would react to it," Braves coach Jerre Holmes said. "But I think it made our kids hungrier and that's what you hope for as a coach."

North Summit quelled those hunger pangs by feasting on the Wildcats. The Braves totaled 377 yards of offense and forced four turnovers to rout South Summit 41-14 on Friday night.

North Summit totaled 280 yards of offense in the first half alone, while limiting the Wildcats to 142. Senior quarterback Devin Holmes nearly matched South Summit's yardage through the air — completing 5 of 8 passes for 128 yards and a pair of second-quarter touchdowns.

The Braves actually fell behind early in the first quarter when Levi Thompson broke through the middle for a 66-yard touchdown gallop. It turned out to be the lone bright spot for South Summit in the first half.

North Summit used a Wildcat miscue to really get going. After Anders Skagerberg made it 7-7 on a 4-yard run into the end zone, Caden Richins recovered a fumble at the South Summit 21 a few seconds later.

That set up a 13-yard touchdown run by Colby Richins — who leaped over a defender at the goal line to get in — and put the Braves up 14-7.

It was the beginning of 34 unanswered points by North Summit. Devin Holmes capped off the spurt with two touchdown passes.

He found Caden Richins for an 18-yarder — which Richins brought in with one hand — to make it 27-7. Then Holmes found Colby Richins on a 10-yard pass to push the lead to 34-7 with 2:19 remaining.

"Our running backs and receivers just did all they could," Devin Holmes said. "They did everything right. We couldn't have drawn it up better than we had it (go) in that first half. Everyone went to the exact place they were supposed to go."

That was true on the defensive end as well. Each time South Summit seemed ready to reclaim some momentum, the Braves came up with a big play to retake control.

After the Wildcats narrowed the lead to 34-14 on a Kendall Prescott touchdown pass, North Summit answered with a 2-yard touchdown run from Colby Richins. Later when South Summit drove down to the Brave 18-yard line, Holmes stopped what felt like a sure six points when he picked off Prescott's pass inside the 10.

"Pretty much our team motto is 'Full out for four quarters,'" Devin Holmes said. "That's what gave. We gave it full out for four quarters."

E-mail: jcoon@desnews.com

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