The Pirates Make the Rams Walk the Plank

After coming off a strong performance at home against Berry, the Northside Rams traveled to Winfield to take on the Pirates with expectations of another strong performance; however, that was not the case as Winfield took care of the Rams 32-14 to earn their second win of the season.

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The Rams' offense struggled early with several uncharacteristic penalties and turnovers. QB Braden Green turned the ball over early with two interceptions, and the Pirates took advantage and scored points off the turnovers. RB Jace Mcnutt had a quiet game with not many carries and fumbled the ball early in the first quarter.

The Pirates defense kept the pressure on Green the whole night and came away with a couple of sacks. Pirate WR Dangelo Bankhead burned the Rams secondary with several catches including, a 15-yard touchdown pass from QB Aidan Quinn. Winfield took control of the first half to make it a 20-0 lead at halftime.

In the second half, the Rams were able to find some offense late in the game. Northside scored two late touchdowns to close the lead to 18 points. Things got chippy between the two teams late in the fourth with unnecessary roughness penalties and unsportsmanlike conduct on Rams head coach Chris Hilliker.

In an emotional post-game interview, Winfield head coach David McKinney said this was a better performance from last week's 6-0 win against Fayette County and explained how the team has to keep building off the momentum.

"Hopefully, our guys see the opportunity to play to depth, and depth wins for you," McKinney said. "Tonight, we had a lot of guys cramping and had new guys in the game and, we were tickled to death they got to play. Region games start now, and every game is to get better each week...when we hit the playoffs, we want to make sure we are still improving and taking care of ourselves and the kids."

The Pirates will welcome the Tarrant Wildcats at home next week before hitting the road for the first time at Oakman. The Rams will try to rebound next week at Haleyville before welcoming Gordo at home.