Defense, fourth quarter pave way for Houston County over Northside
There are birthdays, and then there’s how Von Lassiter celebrated his 37th.
It was a full one.
The Houston County head coach watched his defense hold Northside scoreless in the second half and his offense put the game away in the fourth quarter as the No. 6 Bears beat the No. 1 Eagles 34-13 on Friday night before an overflow crowd at McConnell-Talbert Stadium.
That alone is a pretty good party, but it was also Houston County’s first win over Northside after 17 straight losses, and it cemented the Bears as the top seed in GHSA Region 2-AAAAA, giving them a big bucket of momentum heading into the Class AAAAA playoffs.
Quarterback Jake Fromm, who had a complete night by halftime, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he pretty much did both on a muggy November night.
“We’re coached up; they’re coached up,” he said. “We were just trying to play a good game, the game we can play.”
Fromm finished with 387 yards and three touchdown passes, completing 26-of-40 with no interceptions. But the win was sealed by the Bears’ defense, which held the Eagles to two touchdowns and never let Northside’s offense get into a groove.
“We just had to play hard,” senior linebacker Bennie Steadman said after holding the Eagles to 184 rushing yards and 11 first downs. “Nothing but smashmouth, running the ball down our throats. We just nutted up and we stopped them.”
The first half indicated another cliffhanger was on tap, the Bears (9-1, 8-1 Region 2-AAAAA) needing a pair of Jordan Strevig field goals to tie it at 6 late in the first quarter.
After a three-and-out, the Bears got the ball back and picked up 42 yards on first down, Fromm passing to Amari Colbert, to set up Chris Brinson’s 1-yard run. The Eagles (9-1, 8-1) answered with a 52-yard pass from Tobias Oliver to Marcus Jolly, and it was tied at 13.
A big play put the Bears on top for good, as Fromm threw a strike to Eli Watson for 55 yards and a touchdown with 2:35 left in the first half.
“Our receivers and our offensive line played one heck of a game,” Fromm said. “The offensive line, they kept it clean back there. The receivers go open.”
The teams went back and forth in the third quarter, teasing their fans with drives that moved and stalled, thanks to both defenses. Then came the fourth quarter.
Three straight passes gained 8 yards and Brinson got 10, and then Jaeven West danced for 18 yards as the Bears moved down the field.
Two plays later, Darion Anderson plucked Fromm’s rope in the left side of the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown less than two minutes into the quarter.
A year ago, the Bears took a 13-point lead with about 10 minutes left, missing the extra point. It haunted them in a 34-33 loss.
Not this time, with Houston County’s defense making sure of that. It gave up a first down, then forced a punt followed by a three-and-out capped by Rontravious Byron chasing Oliver down from behind for a 10-yard loss on fourth-and-9.
That’s when it started to hit Lassiter that this birthday might be unforgettable.
“When we tackled the quarterback late one on one,” Lassiter said about when he started to get an inkling of good feelings. “We were able to tackle him one on one. Not many people have been able to do that. If we could tackle him one on one, we had a chance.”
There would be no comeback for Northside, which couldn’t find many cracks in running its option and veer, averaging only 4.3 yards per run.
And Lassiter’s 37th was one a whole lot of people enjoyed.
“I don’t know,” he said about where this one ranked. “Except for my marriage and my kids and my salvation, there ain’t a better day.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 11:51 PM with the headline "Defense, fourth quarter pave way for Houston County over Northside."