By By Chandler Myers
The Northview Chiefs were in a dogfight from start to finish Friday night as they hosted the South Walton Seahawks as the ground game ruled the night and both teams mowed the clock down. South Walton outlasted the Chiefs in the nailbiter with a 14-6 victory.
The Chiefs (1-1, 0-1) were unable to complete their drives for the majority of the game as miscues and turnovers shot their chances of putting the ball in the end zone.
Mistakes were the theme of the night for the Chiefs as they committed turnovers and were unable to score by halftime.
Chiefs head coach Sid Wheatley said his team just could not overcome the amount of mistakes they made on each side of the ball.
Two possessions in a row the Chiefs hurt themselves with turnovers as one drive ended with a fumble on the five-yard line. After junior safety Austin Arrington intercepted a Seahawks pass, the Chiefs offense, which only gained 157 total offense in the game, stalled again with senior quarterback Brad Lowery throwing an interception at the six-yard line.
Wheatley said he was upset with the offense’s lack of consistency throughout the loss.
The one bright spot for the offense was a five-yard run to the end zone by senior running back Shakel Holmes.
Defensively, the Chiefs front four were pushed around the entire game by the Seahawks offensive line as South Walton constantly chewed up the clock and pounded the ball down the field with their bruising ground game.
Wheatley said South Walton came out and performed their offense to the best of their abilities against his defense. He added that his defense just did not seem prepared for the Seahawks.
On the other sideline, South Walton head coach David Baron was counting his blessings that his team played so strong against Northview.
Baron said he was nervous about playing the Chiefs after watching their game film from their 34-16 win over the Graceville Tigers last week.
Now faced with their first loss, the Chiefs will go back to practice looking to answer their ball control problems as well as their problems up front on defense.
Wheatley said fundamentals will be the focus in practice this week as well as skills drills.
Next week, the Chiefs have an off week before traveling to Bozeman High School on Sept. 25.