Defense leads Northside to another road playoff win and a spot in the state final (updated Saturday 1 p.m.)
The offense got the lead early for Northside.
The defense kept it.
Northside held Dacula to 19 yards rushing and forced the Falcons to an uncomfortable level of passing in taking a 14-7 road win in a GHSA Class 6A semifinal.
The Eagles will face Region 1-6A rival Lee County on Dec. 11 in the final game of the day of championships at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
âItâs the kids,â Northside head coach Kevin Kinsler said. âThey did it. They played their butts off.â
Northside is making its second championship trip since winning it in 2014.
Northside didnât have much more success on offense, only outgaining Dacula 229-191 on two fewer plays. Jadin Daniels threw one interception, and Daculaâs Jarrett Jenkins two, with at least one potential pick 6 dropped.
The Eagles scored first on Eric Smithâs 1-yard run at the 5:38 mark of the first quarter. Daniels added a 4-yard score a little more than three minutes later, thanks to an interception that put the Eagles immediately in the red zone.
âIâll tell you what was huge was jumping out to those 14 points,â Kinsler said. âSometimes itâs hard to be patient when you get behind 14-0. The thing I tried to sell the kids on (is) every game weâd seen, they jumped out to a lead and they could play comfortable and kind of dictate, and theyâd make some big plays.â
Northsideâs offense couldnât get going, but the defense made sure that didnât matter. The Eagles punted five times and the Falcons six. Neither team was much on third down, 4-for-11 for Northside and 2 for 11 for Dacula.
âI thought we had opportunities to maybe go down and put another score up,â Kinsler said. âThat wouldâve been huge. Weâve gotta do a better job.â
All night long, Northsideâs defense frustrated Dacula and put the hosts in a comeback mode early, and into a passing game earlier than desired. The Falcons ran only 19 times despite being down only two touchdowns, and had three first-half first downs.
âThey started throwing the ball, and I think thatâs somethingâ Dacula didnât want to do so early, Kinsler said. âTheyâre about 70-30 run. The front did a pretty good job of shutting down their run game.â
A holding call nullified one Dacula touchdown, and the Falcons battled bad field position all night, seemingly starting at the 20 or worse more often than not. When Dacula did get anything going, Northsideâs defense stopped it.
âProbably the biggest series, a big series, they get the ball to start the second half, and get two first downs, and one first down by penalty,â Kinsler said. âWe kinda bowed our necks and stopped âem and forced them to punt it. Theyâd have gone down there and scored, it wouldâve been a dogfight.
âEven more so than it was.â
The Falcons threatened after two completions and a targeting call, but couldnât punch it in, a sack stopping the drive.
Northside missed a field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter, but the Falcons couldnât turn that into momentum. A Tubby McCall interception stopped a red-zone possession midway through the fourth quarter.
The Falcons finally took advantage of some offense and penalties to score with 2:42 left in the game. The Eagles recovered the onside kick and were able to run out the clock.
Daniels was 5 for 7 passing for 62 yards, Smith getting 64 yards on 14 carries and Daniels 47 on 17. Jenkins completed half of his 34 pass attempts for 172 yards.
It was Daculaâs lowest point total since losing 20-7 to Mill Creek in the second game of last year. The Falcons had averaged 33.4 points in its last five playoff games.
But led by the two-deep front â Jajuan Ferguson, Nate Trevino, Fred Chappell, Deandre Walker, and Jaron McWilliams, Oliver Prater, Jaiden Rumph, Christian Walker â kept the big plays in check.
âConsidering where we were and what these kids have done,â Kinsler said, âitâs a great testimony for these kids.â