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GREENSBORO -- The novelty was nice, but the outcome was outstanding for Northern Guilford on Friday.

Mohamed Kellah ran for second-half touchdowns of 75, 5 and 50 yards as the Nighthawks overwhelmed Eastern Randolph 40-14 in their first home varsity football game. Keenan Allen intercepted two Eastern Randolph passes and took a shovel pass for a 26-yard touchdown from Rocco Scarfone to stake his team to a 20-0 halftime lead, and Northern Guilford was seldom challenged thereafter.

"I never thought we could score that many points against them," Nighthawks coach Johnny Roscoe said.

The students in the crowd ran onto the field in celebration but left quickly upon instructions from Guilford County Sheriff's deputies. That was the only downer of the evening for the new home team.

Northern Guilford (2-0), requiring double duty from six players on its 35-man roster, took considerable advantage of Wildcat errors. The Nighthawks got one interception at the Eastern Randolph 31, recovered a fumbled punt at the 15 and took over when a Wildcat punter Bill Stanley had to fall on a bad snap on his 5. All three became quick scores.

That became important on a night when heat cramps exacted a toll on a team that simply can't be that large yet. The school won't have seniors until the fall of 2009.

"This is very big win for our program," Roscoe said. "They're the ones making the tradition here. No one else is. And this is where it started."

It started about as well as they could have imagined. On their first offensive series, the Nighthawks struck when Christian McCain got open and took Scarfone's pass for a 42-yard touchdown. McCain later left the game with a knee injury of uncertain severity.

The Wildcats closed to 20-8 early in the third quarter when coach Burton Cates moved Khyri Crawford from tailback to quarterback and Crawford instigated an option-based scoring drive capped by Malcolm Green's 12-yard run.

It was not an omen.

Only two plays later, Kellah burst up the middle and went virtually untouched for the 75-yard TD, which gave the Nighthawks some breathing room.

"Last week, (the Wildcats) scored 24 points after they got down," Roscoe said. "We knew they could do that."

Kellah finished with 227 yards on 21 carries. Yes, those would be school records.

"They played together as a team," Roscoe said of his bunch. "We have worked hard, and our No. 1 goal has been to play tight as a team."

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com

N--Christian McCain 42 pass from Rocco Scarfone (Bob Hicks kick)

N--Keenan Allen 26 pass from Rocco Scarfone (Hicks kick)

N--Scarfone 1 run (kick failed)

ER--Malcolm Green 12 run (Green run)

NG--Mohamed Kellah 75 run (Hicks kick)

NG--Kellah 5 run (kick failed)

ER--Bill Stanley 4 pass from Jake Millikin (pass failed)

NG--Kellah 50 run (Hicks kick)