Thompson touchdown toss caps wild Northwood triumph at Chapel Hill

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CHAPEL HILL — As they walked back to the huddle during a Northwood timeout before fourth down and 15, with less than three minutes remaining in the game, Justin Brower was yelling at Jack Thompson.

“I was low-key pissed off,” Brower said. “I told him to put it on my chest, like in an aggressive way so I could get into his head.”

One play earlier, on what should have been a go-ahead touchdown, Thompson had barely overthrown a wide-open Brower on a crossing route over the middle, the ball glancing off of the wide receiver’s outstretched fingertips.

But coming out of the timeout, Thompson hit Brower on the exact same route for a 28-yard touchdown. The pass put Northwood up for good, making the score 35-34 in what would be a 42-34 win for the Chargers at Chapel Hill on Friday night.

“It’s devastating,” Chapel Hill coach Issac Marsh said. “This is one that hurts.”

Northwood got off to a blazing start, driving 84 yards on its initial series and scoring on a 30-yard slant from Thompson to Jalen Mcafee-Marion.

On the Chargers’ next possession, Thompson’s pass intended for Mcafee-Marion was tipped to Brower, who scampered in for the touchdown, bringing the score to 14-0 with 4:24 left in the first quarter.

“I was at the right place at the right time,” Brower said of the play.

Following that score, however, the Tigers flipped the script, beginning with a 12-play, 80-yard drive that culminated in a 1-yard rushing touchdown for Milad Aghaiepour.

Chapel Hill then stopped the Northwood offense for the first time by finally slowing down tailback Hue Jacobs.

“We just changed our defensive front to give us an opportunity to stop the run,” Marsh said.

Jacobs, who had run for 73 yards on 11 carries during the Chargers’ first two drives, was held to just 47 yards on his next 15 attempts as the Northwood offense faltered.

Tigers quarterback Caleb Kelley then found Grant Stough wide open on a deep cross for a 34-yard score, and a two-point rush for Caleb Clegg gave Chapel Hill the lead.

After Thompson was intercepted by Tyler Woody on the ensuing series, Chapel Hill needed just two plays to tack on another score when Kelley scooped up a bad snap deep in the backfield and threw a touchdown pass to Noah Walker to make it 21-14.

Northwood then drove down the field to set up a 45-yard field goal try for Aidan Laros, but the kick was blocked and run back 65 yards for a touchdown by Clegg to give the Tigers a 14-point halftime cushion.

“We started out fast and we let some big plays get the better of us in the second quarter and that happens,” Chargers coach Cullen Homolka said.

The Tigers came out strong in the second half as Kelley connected with Stough for a score to give Chapel Hill a 34-14 lead with 9:03 remaining in the third quarter.

After blocking the Tigers’ extra point, Northwood finally broke through on the ensuing drive when Thompson threw a 10-yard back shoulder fade to Chris Lawson for a touchdown with 4:48 to go in the third quarter. It was the Chargers’ first score since midway through the first quarter and cut the deficit to 13.

With its collective back against the wall, the Northwood defense, which had allowed touchdowns on its last five series, recovered a fumble by Woody.

“We were like, ‘Something’s got to happen soon,’” Homolka said. “And then that fumble happened and that just kind of changed the momentum. It was big. That probably changed the whole second half.”

The Northwood offense then converted when Thompson faked a handoff to Jacobs and spun his way into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown.

In need of another stop, the Chargers defense came up big once again when Kelley’s pass 35 yards downfield was picked off by Lawson, giving Northwood the ball back with 6:40 left in the game.

A key conversion on third and 13 from Thompson to Lawson highlighted the Chargers drive down the field, before a 26-yard rush from Jacobs set up first down from the Chapel Hill 23-yard line. A sack, a short completion, and Thompson’s near-miss over the middle forced the Chargers to take a timeout before the do-or-die fourth and 15.

“I’m going to get you this one,” Thompson said to the dismayed Brower during the timeout.

“You’re sitting there and you know it’s going to be there,” Homolka said. “We knew if the ball was good Brower was going to make a play.”

After the snap, Thompson saw Brower in the clear over the middle for the second consecutive play.

“The safety goes with [Lawson] so Justin’s sitting there wide open,” said Thompson, who finished 18-of-27 with 242 passing yards in the game, throwing for four touchdowns and running for one. “It was the easiest throw I made in this game.”

After the touchdown and Laros’ extra point gave the Chargers a one-point advantage, the defense forced a turnover on downs, allowing Jacobs, who finished with 36 carries for 213 yards, to cap off the win with a 10-yard rushing touchdown.

“Our kids came out in the second half and showed that adversity really isn’t their thing and they’re going to beat adversity in the tail,” Homolka said.

There was no better evidence of that than Thompson, coming off of that deflating incompletion and firing a strike to Brower, right on his chest.

Said Homolka, “Jack just needed two reps at it.”