By By Adam Prestridge
Northview notched another win Friday night as they manhandled Sneads on their home turf.
The Chiefs (2-0) scored early and often in the first half to build a 27-8 lead at halftime. The home team added two more scores in the third quarter highlighted by Ahmadh Simpson's 70-yard kick off return to open the half as the Chiefs ran away with a 39-8 victory.
"It feels good, it feels real good, I'm happy," Northview head coach Cody Keene said following the win. "I'm real happy for the kids. They've worked real hard and are earning what they get. I think the defense played real hard. We made a couple mistakes, but we just want to keep going forward with the next one."
With two wins already this season the Chiefs are one victory away from having a winning streak after finishing winless the last two seasons.
Sophomore running back Nakita Myles put on another show for Chief fans as he showed off his blazing speed helping lead his team to victory. He finished the night with 152 yards on 11 carries and scored four touchdowns three of which he scored in the first half.
Myles scored on a 71-yard interception return early in the third quarter, but a penalty for clipping nixed the score. A few plays later he scored on a 25-yard scamper into the end zone, but it too was called back on a holding penalty. The third time proved to be a charm as Myles finally made it into the end zone without a penalty flag thrown after dancing in from 15 yards out.
Snead head coach Ron Tanner said the Chief's speed on offense and in their defensive secondary is what caught the Pirates off guard.
"We're really young, we graduated a big class," he said. "They've got a lot of speed. I don't know how in the world they went 0-7 last year with that kind of speed. We only had about three that could run with their fastest four or five."
Snead's speed worried Northview's coaching staff.
"Their speed scared me to death coming into it, but our kids defensively did a great job of recognizing formations and recognizing plays that we had tried to get tendencies" Keene said. "Our kids did a great job of doing what we asked them and their kids played hard. I'm real proud of our kids."
Tanner also added that his players had been victims of the hype.
"I don't really think that we're that bad," Tanner said. "We're reading the newspaper too much. They didn't win a game last year and we usually win. I knew it when they were playing around on the bus on the way over here. I hope this is a wake up call; it certainly needs to be."
Senior quarterback Courtney Whatley also had a big night for Northview with five carries for 46 yards and one touchdown. He credited his success this season on feeling more comfortable in the pocket.
"I'm trying to be a quarterback, I'm not trying to be a Vick," Whatley said. "I'm really trying to throw it even though we didn't throw it much. I'm not trying to run it that much; I only run it if I threatened. Our line blocks good for Nakita and me."
Keene agreed with Whatley that the wins have been team efforts, but added that his quarterback was doing a great job running the offense.
"Courtney's a senior leader," Keene said. "He's doing a tremendous job of leading our offense, Nakita's running the ball real hard, Brady Levins in front of him is working hard a fullback and the whole offensive line is doing a good job. It's all the kids."
The Pirates only score of the game came with 3.5 second remaining in the first half when juniors Kevin Lawson and J.R. Johnson connected on a 20-yard scoring strike.