news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Western Alamance built some pretty nice sandcastles Friday night.

Northern Guilford played the role of the tsunami.

Mohamed Khellah ran for two touchdowns and returned an interception for another, Keenan Allen scored twice and Northern Guilford had an answer for every Warrior attack as the Nighthawks (10-1, 7-0) capped a perfect Mid-State 3-A campaign by subduing Western 48-16 to win the first conference championship in school history.

“We told them all along, this group will set the standard,” said Nighthawks head coach Johnny Roscoe, whose team is ranked sixth in AP’s statewide 3-A poll and will be a top seed when the playoff brackets are released today.

It was close for a half but got out of hand in a hurry. Western Alamance took the lead on a safety late in the first quarter when Northern quarterback Rocco Scarfone was called for intentional grounding in his end zone. That put Northern in the unfamiliar position of being behind after the opening quarter, and the Warriors wound up for another body blow by pushing the ensuing drive inside the Nighthawks’ 10.

Then their gloves fell off.

A fumbled carry popped right into the hands of Nighthawks junior defensive back Alan Hart, and Khellah ran untouched for a 90-yard touchdown on the next play.

Western responded with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Dominique Bridges to B.J. Bunn, but Northern marched back with a string of four 10-plus-yard runs and punched it in on a 12-yarder by Khellah.

Sacks by Chytee Attaway and John McBeth squashed Western’s final drive of the half.

“Our defense was bending, bending, bending, but we came back to make some plays,” Roscoe said.

Western did not go quietly.

The Warriors (8-3, 5-2), a surprise contender with just 13 seniors on its roster, recovered an onside kick to open the second half and, after Bridges overthrew a sure touchdown on third-and-goal from the 6, scored on a fake field goal when Bridges rolled right and outraced four defenders to the corner for a 16-14 lead.

But Northern simply had too many weapons at hand, scoring for the final 34 points of the game in every fashion imaginable.

Allen returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown, Hart recovered another fumble to set up a 2-yard score by Attaway and Scarfone outraced everyone on a 79-yard double reverse pass from Maurice Harris. Allen added a 49-yard touchdown from Scarfone early in the fourth, and Khellah jumped in front of a deflected Bridges pass and took it 43 yards for the final touchdown.

The Nighthawks, whose only loss came 12-7 to Dudley in the season’s third week, finished conference play with a 356-74 scoring margin.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for,” Khellah said. “Now we’re here and we’re ready to go.”