Bill Beck

Side lines



One quarterback knew when to make the plays.

One quarterback is learning how to make them.

In a nutshell, that's how Concord was three touchdowns better than NorthWood in Friday's 28-7 victory at Andrews Field.

Ryan McKibbin wasn't spectacular, but Concord came up with a pair of shining pass-catch touchdowns, one on the heels of an interception thrown by Panther QB Will Kirkwood.

Trailing 7-6, McKibbin stepped back and threw a perfectly-timed jump ball to tight end Franko House, who split two defenders

“With Franko, he's 6-5 ... you just throw it up. He's a basketball player. It's a rebound for him,” McKibbin said. “I'm thinking, he's 6-5, let him go up and get it.''

And another jump-ball toss to Adam Glanders put the game away early, theoretically, early in the second half.

Backed up to the 6-yardline by a Panther punt, McKibbin's well-placed toss on the first snap hit Glander's hands in mid-air near the 30. One spin and Glanders dashed the rest of the way for a back-breaking 94-yard TD.

“I knew that was going to be there because I had been trying to call that play all night,'' McKibbin said. “Once again, the line did a great job.”

Kirkwood, making just his third start for NorthWood, fired three interceptions, two of which led directly to Concord scores.

“We made a couple of bad turnovers, but I don't want to put the blame on him,'' said Scott Hoover, NorthWood's head coach. “I know on one, somebody ran the wrong route.”

Concord is good, but not great.

NorthWood, which is still trying for its first win, isn't bad, but still has a ways to go to be good.

Like so many local teams, it all begins with the quarterback play.

McKibbin wasn't consistent, but was effective enough in the right moments to win. Kirkwood is getting there.

“I thought Ryan played a smart game,'' Dawson said. “It's a great lesson to win at a great place like this that has a lot of tradition and we knew their kids would come after us.”

NorthWood came after Concord running backs hard, forcing McKibbin to become a runner, too. At 31 yards in seven carries, the 6-3, 235-pounder was by far the Minutemen's leading rusher.

“If they're gonna take that away, we've got to have the other option,'' Dawson said. And he did a good job of doing that.'' “NorthWood was keying on our backs, so we had to keep our reads going and I had to keep the ball sometimes,'' McKibbin said. “Every day in practice we prepare for that. We go through about 70 or 80 of those reps in practice.''

In tough NLC games like these, the reps seemed to pay off.

Bill Beck is The Truth's sports editor. Contact him at bbeck@etruth.com.