Northwest steamrolls to 2-0 start (+video)

There is, in the words of the generation running the thing, no chill to Northwest’s offense.

They just don’t know when to stop.

Take Friday as the latest example, when the Grizzlies ran over, around and through Kapaun Mount Carmel on the way to a 49-33 win at Cessna Stadium and a 2-0 start following a season-opening win over defending Class 5A champion Bishop Carroll.

And for all the lamentations Northwest coach Steve Martin laid on his team about selfishness and staying focused and keeping heads on straight after the game, the dismantling of the Crusaders’ laid one fact very bare:

“You’ve already beaten two of the best teams on your schedule,” Martin said. “Now, we’re the hunted.”

And with that, the Grizzlies’ rise continues with them decidedly in the driver’s seat just two games into the City League schedule.

Friday, Northwest’s offensive line dominated the point of attack, opening holes and protecting senior quarterback Kevin Folsom, who threw for 149 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns.

“(Martin) just knows we can always do better,” Folsom said. “We did OK out there, but there’s things we can do better. We had two turnovers late, and that just can’t happen.”

Jahlyl Rounds added 123 rushing yards, part of 380 yards on the ground Northwest racked up as a team.

“That’s what happens when you have five guys up front that sacrifice, that don’t get their names in the paper and don’t care if they do,” Martin said. “When you have kids like that on the offensive line, good things will happen.”

Northwest also had to overcome a career night by Kapaun quarterback Brock Monty, who was 27-of-43 passing for 373 yards and three touchdowns.

The first half was wild offensively. Kapaun and Northwest traded scores on the first four possessions – including two touchdowns by Northwest’s Antonio Joyner – and were tied at 14-14 after the first quarter.

“That’s our tempo, we move quick but I even think we were surprised by how quick things were going,” Joyner said. “We knew where we were at, we just didn’t think it was going to go that fast.”

After the Crusaders offense stalled out on back-to-back punts – sandwiching a fumble by Northwest – Kapaun punter Nate O’Neil pinned Northwest at its own 1-yard line.

The Grizzlies responded with a 15-play drive that went just a shade over six minutes and was capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by Rounds for a 21-14 lead.

Northwest almost got some much-needed breathing room when it had Kapaun backed up on a fourth-and-16 deep in Northwest territory, but back-to-back pass interference and offsides penalties by Northwest set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Alexander Norris that tied the score at 21-21.

Not to be outdone, Folsom found Martese Mullins sprinting up the Northwest sideline for a 70-yard touchdown and a 27-21 lead with 1:02 left in the second quarter.

Northwest took advantage of a controversial grounding call on Monty in the third quarter that led to a turnover on downs for Kapaun and a 49-27 lead for Northwest that Kapaun couldn’t overcome.

“We hung in there, but we’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Monty said. “We’ll get back to practice and fix what went wrong.”

“We don’t have a big, bruising back that we can rely on this year,” Kapaun coach Dan Adelhardt. “The way we’ve got to win games is with our quarterback and with a lot of backs who can come out and catch the ball.”

Northwest’s schedule sets up nicely now — back-to-back games against winless teams in North and Southeast before hosting West on Oct. 2.

“Our goals are very clear,” Martin said. “We want to win state. If we win a City League title on the way to doing that, that’s just fine.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 11:33 PM with the headline "Northwest steamrolls to 2-0 start (+video)."