By Andrew Garner

Editor

Not getting off to a good start Friday night led to the Northview Chiefs falling 47-20 to Crestview in their season opener.

Crestview held the Chiefs to a three-and-out at the start, and then scored a touchdown on a blocked punt to take an early lead.

NHS found itself down 12-0, but Luke Ward took the ball 70 yards for a score to cut the lead to 12-8 with a successful 2-point conversion.

CHS later went ahead 19-8, and then added another TD off of a turnover to make it 26-8.

Ward added his second touchdown right before halftime and the Chiefs trailed 26-14.

NHS head football coach Sid Wheatley said a key moment in the second half came in the second half with Crestview ahead 33-20.

Wheatley said CHS faced a fourth and five situation and a stop would’ve been big.

Unfortunately, the Chiefs couldn’t stop Crestview and went down 47-20.

The Chiefs have an open week this week, which is something that is needed, the coach said.

“We have a lot of injured guys,” Wheatley said. “We’ve got to get healthy. We gave up too many points defensively. I had several guys playing out of position. They were put in a hard place.”

Wheatley said the Chiefs will practice today and tomorrow, and will take Friday off.

“We can’t give up 47 points, but I will say at the same time that Crestview has a good football team,” he said. “You can’t turn the ball over like we did the other night. You’ve got to make them earn every yard.

“The Crestview staff was very complimentary of the way we played,” he said. “You can’t turn the ball over like we did.”

The Chiefs will be back in action next week at home against Gulf Breeze.

-Andrew Garner