ATLANTA — The Norcross football team bounced back to defeat North Atlanta 28-10 on Friday.


The Blue Devils responded following a tough loss to West Forsyth in their last outing.

"Coming out of the bye week, we worked to clean up some things, and the big key for us was just coming out ready to go, being physical and setting the tone early in the game, and I felt like we did that overall as a team," Norcross head coach Corey Richardson said.

In wet, rainy conditions, both teams faced tough preparations, but that did not bother Norcross.

"No weather was talked about," Richardson said. "We just go out there being ready to play. I always talk about players handling adversity if things change. Luckily tonight it only backed up pregame warmups. Our kids did a good job preparing this week and staying focused. We had a great week of practice, and that was key for tonight."


On North Atlanta's first drive, in Norcross' territory, the Blue Devils' defense got a huge break when Brooks Thomas recovered a fumble forced by Landon Dumas. Following the fumble, Norcross' focal point was to run the football.


On the second play of Norcross' first drive, Luqman Baig ran for 20 yards to the 32-yard line, followed up by Tyler Ruffin's 11-yard run to the 43-yard line. Later on in the drive, following 10- and 3-yard runs by Ruffin, Norcross committed a huge blunder, fumbling at North Atlanta's end zone.

"You can't turn the ball over, but I was proud of the way the offense moved the ball up and down the field," Richardson said. "We've got to finish drives."

Both defenses played well, forcing each other to punt on the next two possessions.

Following a 5-yard run from North Atlanta, Norcross' defense caught a big break on a fumbled snap by North Atlanta recovered by Eric Pitts for a touchdown, giving the visitors a 7-0 lead.

"When a defense scores like that, it does so much for the momentum of the game," Richardson said.

The defense continued to carry that momentum by forcing an incomplete pass on third and 4, forcing North Atlanta to punt. Following that stop, Norcross' run game continued to dominate on the next drive, punishing North Atlanta's defense.

Norcross rewarded itself as Ruffin ran for a 5-yard touchdown up the middle, extending the lead to 14-0.

North Atlanta responded with Benjamin Blackburn's 16-yard touchdown up the middle, cutting the lead to 14-7.

Norcross came out with a quick response with a three-play drive, which started with 14- and 11-yard runs by Ruffin, followed by a 41-yard touchdown from Baig, extending the lead to 21-7.


Norcross got a huge goal-line stand on its 2-yard line, making a stop for a one-yard loss and forcing a field goal with 2:35 remaining in the second quarter.

On just the third play of the second half, Norcross committed another blunder with a fumble recovered by North Atlanta. Just two plays later, the Blue Devils' defense picked up the slack by forcing another fumble, recovered for a touchdown by Tommie Traylor, to build a 28-10 lead.

On the following drive, the defense continued to thrive as defensive end Jared Alleyne secured two sacks in one drive alone, pushing North Atlanta's offense out of field goal range. That forced North Atlanta to go for it on fourth and 28, resulting in a fourth-down stop for Norcross.

For the remainder of the game, Norcross' defense continued to succeed, forcing a couple of fourth-down stops and completing a second-half shutout.

"In the first half, they were getting us a little bit in the run game," Richardson said. "We didn't do much but make a couple of adjustments, and our kids did a really good job executing the game plan at the half, and our kids did a really good job stopping the run and limiting any explosive plays."

The Blue Devils improve their record to 3-1 heading into a home game next week with North Forsyth.