Shaw falls to 1-1 with loss to Northgate

A promising start to the 2015 season last week in a win against Luella became a distant memory for the Shaw Raiders on Friday night at Kinnett Stadium.

The visiting Northgate Vikings took it to Shaw in every facet of the game, blanking the Raiders 45-0 in their season opener.

First-year coach Chuck Stamey said the blame lies squarely on his shoulders.

"I'll take it," Stamey said. "The focus wasn't there. When you coach young men like this, it's not how they deal with defeat, but how they deal with success. Sometimes when they have too much success too quickly, we all get complacent. At the end of the day, it's not their job to maintain focus; that's my job.

"Those 45 points are mine, but our kids didn't give up."

On offense, the three-headed monster of quarterback B.J. Knight, running back Sydarrian Cobb, and wide receiver Nick Beason were all stymied by the Vikings. Knight finished the game 5 of 13 passing for 97 yards, while Cobb had one catch for 38 yards and 11 carries for 48 yards. Beason had just two catches for 11 yards although he had a 61-yard punt return to set Shaw up deep in Northgate territory, but the Raiders couldn't cash in.

While the Shaw defense had some positive plays throughout the game, the Northgate offense was able to wear them down with a 31-point performance in the first half. The Raiders ran only 17 offensive plays in the first half for just 27 yards compared to 33 plays and 243 yards of offense in the first half for the Vikings. Twenty-eight of those plays for Northgate were on the ground for 167 total yards, 119 of those coming from junior running back Ton Evans.

"The defense made adjustments, but the offense just left them out there too long," Stamey said. "We can't go three and out and leave them out there too long, and that's what I've said since I took over.

"That right there (Northgate) is a really good football team. That's the best Wing-T football team since (Central-)Carrollton three years ago. They have a great coaching staff and their kids are phenomenal in their effort. I applaud them for how they coached them up to play us."

The Raiders advanced to the Northgate 1-yard line in the fourth quarter to attempt to break the shutout, but the Viking defense kept Shaw out of the end zone.

"They wanted it more than we did. They wanted the shutout and they got it. I don't blame them; I'd have wanted it too," Stamey said.

The Raiders have a week to prepare for their first game outside of Columbus as they travel to Americus-Sumter for a non-region game on Friday night.

"We need to refocus," said Stamey. "Get back to what we were doing. Our last two outings were very businesslike; this one, we weren't. We'll have a little adversity with traveling down there, and we've got to regroup and get our offense back in synch again."Friday at Kinnett StadiumNorthgate 10 21 7 7--45

Shaw 0 0 0 0--0First Quarter

N--Kyle Carter (Jamie Skalski kick), 8:35

N--Skalski 20 FG, 5:19Second QuarterN--Kyle McLaren 9 run (Skalski kick), 11:15

N--Ton Evans (Skalski kick), 7:50

N--Evans 3 runs (Skalski kick), 0:31Third QuarterN--Chris Age 6 pass from McLaren (Skalski kick), 7:07Fourth QuarterN--Bryce Bates 17 run (Skalski kick), 2:30

Team records: Northgate 1-0, Shaw 1-1. Next: Shaw, at Americus-Sumter, Sept. 4, 7:30 p.m.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Shaw falls to 1-1 with loss to Northgate ."