Sparked by two touchdowns each from Neino Robinson and Brannon Freeman, the fourth- ranked Northview Chiefs beat South Walton 34-7 Friday night, improving to 3-1.

Robinson’s first punt return was strong, but was called back due to an illegal blocking penalty.

Regardless, after the defense forced another three-and-out, Robinson fielded a punt return after the ball took a bounce and sped through traffic to find a hole in the defense and return over 50 yards for the first touchdown of the game.

Head coach Sid Wheatley said he knows what a dangerous weapon Robinson can be.

“He’s very elusive,” Wheatley said. “He can make you miss on a dime.”

On the next offensive possession, Kevin Vaughan was perhaps a bit overexcited and overthrew Neino Robinson and was intercepted.

The defense of the Chiefs answered with a forced fumble caused by Jordan Coon and the fumble was scooped up by teammate Chad Smith.
Roderick Woods led the defense with his stellar play, finishing the night with a team-leading 12 tackles. Woods had several plays where his pressure to the quarterback resulted in incomplete passes.

The defense managed to come up with four total interceptions throughout the course of the game, including two by Chad Smith, one by Juron Myles and one by Lamikeal Banks. Myles finished second on the team in tackles with six.

Freeman made a remarkable play on the next offensive drive, when just as it looked like quarterback Kevin Vaughan was headed for his second interception on the night, Freeman grabbed the ball out of the opposing cornerback’s hands and managed to get a long reception to set the Chiefs up in the red zone. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, Vaughan missed a field goal attempt.

Three plays later, the offense was ready to receive the ball again and this time, they managed to slowly and methodically get points on the board. They found success with right sweeps with Brannon Freeman, including a nice reverse for a gain of 15 yards. Freeman found the end zone from eight yards out and then caught a pass from Vaughan for the two-point conversion to make the score 14-0.

The offense was able to move the ball again on their next drive, but came up empty when Vaughan missed another field goal attempt.

The defense got into trouble for the first time in the game when Smith let his receiver get away from him, but Freeman was there for a big stop. On the following play, Smith redeemed himself with a huge interception that helped keep the Seahawks off the scoreboard in the first half.

The second half didn’t have the best start for the Chiefs, as Vaughan missed another field goal attempt. However, the defense managed to get one of the four total interceptions and the offense was able to convert it into points. Vaughan tossed the ball to the end zone from 21 yards out.

Receiver Cameron Newsome showed tremendous concentration to make a difficult catch that gave the Chiefs a commanding 21-0 lead after Vaughan connected on the point-after attempt.

Another interception again resulted in points for the Chiefs. On the scoring drive, Vaughan completed five passes and ran for 12 yards on one carry. The final completion was a short pass over the middle to Robinson. He turned what should have been a short four-yard gain into a touchdown, accumulating nine yards after the catch by swiftly darting several defenders and once again finding a hole in the defense to put six more points on the scoreboard. The point-after was just wide left to make it 27-7.

After another strong hold by the defense, Robinson once again had a strong punt return with a 15-yard return. Another field goal attempt by Vaughan was no good, leaving him 0 for 4 on field goals and 2 for 3 on extra point attempts.

However, his passing numbers looked much better, as he finished 14 for 20 on passing attempts with 130 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

The defense finally wore down and gave up a touchdown to South Walton, but the Chiefs recovered the onside kick and even managed to add another score when Freeman had an open field after following a block on a run up the middle.

The gaudiest statistics belonged to Freeman, who totaled 100 yards rushing on seven carries and had eight receptions for 118 yards.

“Brannon Freeman had a pretty good game,” Wheatley said. “He’s doing a nice job for us.”

Next Friday, Sept. 28, Northview will have a road game against Gulf Breeze with kickoff set for 7 p.m.