How the Blues extended their dominance in the annual North-South football game

Another Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl.

Another North squad victory.

The Blues won the annual all-star game 24-12 on Saturday at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium. It was the North’s third straight victory and 12th in the last 14 years.

“I don’t know why. If I [did], I’d bottle it up and sell it and we’d all have some money,” said North head coach Jet Turner, normally of Woodmont, on the North’s recent domination. “We’ve got great kids in the Upstate; they’ve got great kids in the Lower State. I don’t know.”

What he does know is that his defense’s ability to slow the South’s offense to a crawl for pretty much all but one drive was more than enough to carry the North to the win. The South managed 163 yards in the game, with 80 of those coming on a 7:22 drive to open the third quarter – when the Reds scored their only touchdown of the afternoon.

Outside of that, Carvers Bay and South head coach Nate Thompson watched as his offense was forced into long-yardage situations time and again and could muster only a pair of field goals the rest of the game.

“Our defense got after them,” Turner said. “They were undersized, but they flew around.”

It helped that his team was playing with a lead for nearly the entire game. The North scored 3:34 into the game on Dre Yarbough’s 46-yard touchdown pass to Coleman Smith and led the rest of the way. After a South field goal from Taete McMurry, the North scored another touchdown on a DJ Twitter run prior to the end of the opening quarter.

The North never led by fewer than five points from there.

Turning point

The South squad had narrowed its deficit to just five points midway through the third quarter on a Craig Grant touchdown pass to Keon Clary. However, less than 4 minutes later, the North countered with a Jordan Morgan-Steven Gilmore connection to push the lead back to 12.

Key performers

Steven Gilmore: The South Pointe receiver had seven receptions for 83 yards and a score and three returns for another 57 yards for the North.

Jordan Morgan: Playing for the North, the Eastside signal caller passed for 124 yards on 12-of-15 passing.

Kris Copeland: The South receiver and return man from Cane Bay earned team MVP honors by bringing back four kickoffs for 137 yards and hauling in a team-high 38 yards worth of receptions.

By the numbers

2

While normally prone to high turnover numbers given little practice time together, this year’s game had just two, a D’Angelo Knight interception and a South muffed punt, both in the fourth quarter.

41-27-2

The North squad now leads the all-time series by a margin of 41-27, with a pair of ties mixed in.

163

The South squad had just 163 yards of total offense, 99 of those coming through the air.

They said it

“We had chances, but we just didn’t punch it in. … In a game like this, you don’t want to lose those opportunities. In a game like this, you’re playing with kids who normally don’t play together. It can work for you or it can work against you. In our case, it kind of worked against us.” - Carvers Bay coach Nate Thompson, who was also the head coach for the South

“I’m tired. I’m not going to lie. But it was a great week.” - North coach Jet Turner, on the festivities and game for North-South week.

This story was originally published December 9, 2017 at 4:13 PM with the headline "How the Blues extended their dominance in the annual North-South football game."