Published: September 06, 2008 01:36 am            

Wolves rip North, 36-7

Santa Fe quarterback Michael Hodges connected with Alex Hill for touchdown passes of 39 and 84 yards, while Steve Sumpter and Randy Ponder had huge plays in the running game in a 36-7 blowout win over North on Friday night at Wantland Stadium.

“It’s awesome that we were able to win like that again, but we want to be able to put a drive together,” Santa Fe head coach Dan Cocannouer said.

Hodges connected with Hill for a 39-yard score late in the first quarter, which seemed to open the floodgates.

With 9:16 left in the second quarter Sumpter took a direct snap and went 43-yards for a score to make it 15-0. And then it was Hodges to a wide open Hill again for an 84-yard touchdown pass that sent the Wolves into halftime with a 22-0 lead.

“It was pretty much the same as last season. The passes to Alex really couldn’t have been easier, because he was wide open, but I thought the other receivers did a great job of making plays, too,” Hodges said.

The Santa Fe defense was spectacular as well, with Willie Okwuonu and Sumpter each having an interception in the first half. Sumpter added his second interception of the game in the third quarter, while Daeshon Bufford was a beast on the defensive line getting a sack along with batting down a couple of Cody Crabaugh passes.

Santa Fe put the game away in the third as Ponder broke a 66-yard touchdown run with 6:08 remaining. The senior tailback had 14 carries on the night for 113 yards.

Sumpter put the exclamation point on the victory with a 29-yard reception from Hodges midway through the fourth quarter, followed with a 9-yard touchdown run on the very next play.

“The only negative I can think of is that it seemed like we went into cruise control in the second quarter. I told the guys they couldn’t do that, we don’t want to put the brakes on until the fourth quarter, but other than that I thought we played really well,” Cocannouer said.

North scored its only points of the night with 1:02 remaining to escape the shutout.

Hodges completed 11-of-19 passes for 237 yards and two scores in the victory.

The Wolves will try to claim another city championship next week, when they play Memorial.

        

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