When it looked like head coach Keith Maloof and the Norcross Blue Devils had last year’s state runner-ups on the ropes, the North Gwinnett Bulldogs bounced back and took control of the game. Down 19-0 in the second quarter, North Gwinnett scored the game’s last 33 points to beat Norcross for the first time since 2005.
In the third quarter, Norcross punter Conner Hawk stood near his own end zone, awaiting the snap. The ball sailed over his head and out of the end zone, tying the game at 19-19.
After that, it was all Bulldogs.
It seemed as if Norcross lost a little bit of composure after that miscue. Bob Sphire, head coach of North Gwinnett, clearly had his kids prepared to deal with adversity. Quarterback Michael Tamburo coolly led the offense to, so far, the comeback of the year, and the defense played solidly after Norcross jumped out to their big lead. With the win, North Gwinnett is now in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed out of Region 7-AAAAA.
Norcross, however, can recover from this disaster of a game. The next four games are against Chattahoochee, Northview, North Forsyth and Duluth. If the Blue Devils take care of business in those contests, they will be 4-1 in the region going into the matchup with a beatable Peachtree Ridge.
Just as North Gwinnett responded to adversity in last night’s game, let’s see how Norcross deals with adversity moving forward in the season.
Ewalt can be reached at aewalt@scoreatl.com.
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