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North Summit football falls to Enterprise 13-12

After a scoreless first quarter on Friday night at 2A Enterprise, the North Summit High School football team’s offense got on track in the second quarter.

After taking a 12-0 lead, though, Enterprise battled back to earn a 13-12 win and North Summit left with its first loss of the season. North Summit Coach Devin Smith said the Braves had trouble finishing drives on Friday night.

"We actually moved the ball really well for the most part," he said. "We had four turnovers and a fourth-and-one on the six and didn’t convert it. There were just some things like that that ended up being the difference."

Touchdowns from quarterback Braxten Northrup and receiver Carter Wardrop gave the Braves a 12-0 advantage at halftime as the stout defense refused to allow any points to Enterprise.

The second half was a different story, though. Enterprise quarterback Brandell Shumway scored on a four-yard run in the third quarter to cut North Summit’s lead to 12-7. In the fourth, Shumway again scored from four yards out and the Wolves took a 13-12 lead over the Braves.

Smith said that he was encouraged by the offense in the second quarter before turnovers and other mistakes stalled several drives. Northrup’s touchdown came on a broken play and Wardrop’s came on a long pass.

"[Northrup’s touchdown] was supposed to go to Chris Richins and he slipped out of his stance," he said. "Braxten did a good job keeping the play alive and ran seven or eight yards for a score. Then Carter scored off of a 65- or 70-yard play-action pass."

Noticeably absent from the score sheet was running back Tristan Woolstenhulme, who put up big numbers for the Braves in the first two weeks of the season. Smith said the Wolves were focused on stopping Woolstenhulme. He still had some decent rushing numbers, Smith said — Enterprise just stopped him from finding the end zone.

"They definitely had an eye on him, that’s for sure," he said. "He does a good job and the other backs do a good job, too. I think we need to look to put it in the air a little more, though, to keep teams honest. Enterprise packed it in pretty tight on us. I’ll take some fault there — I didn’t do a great job of adjusting to that. If teams are going to be that worried about us running, we need to be able to put it in the air more."

Smith said the Braves have the talent to expand the passing game as needed.

"Braxten’s doing a nice job," he said. "He’s still young, but he has the ability to throw it and we have some guys who can catch it. We can open it up some."

The North Summit defense played really well on Friday, Smith said. The focus will be for the offense to score more points in the coming weeks.

"We’ve got to put more points on the board," he said. "Our offense had the ball for like 70 offensive plays. We just weren’t finishing drives. Our defense did a nice job."

North Summit (2-1) faces a tough task this week when Beaver (2-1) visits Coalville for a 2A North/2A South showdown. Beaver is considered by most polls to be one of the top two teams in 2A, along with South Summit.

"They’re a very good defensive team," Smith said. "They have some good linebackers and some good interior defensive linemen. Their quarterback has a lot of experience. He’s been starting since he was a sophomore and he’s a senior now and you can tell. They have some good guys around him, too."

Offensive creativity and execution will be the keys to success for North Summit, Smith added.

"I think we’ve got to mix it up a little bit," he said. "We’ve got to quit turning the ball over. In short-yardage situations, we have to move the sticks — we’ve got to find a way to get a yard. That was the difference between 12 points and 30 for us [against Enterprise]. We have to be able to do the little things. Those small things turn into big, giant things."

Friday night’s game in Coalville is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. at North Summit High School.


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