No. 6 Pickerington North scored 12 seconds into the game and never looked back Friday night, routing No. 3 Worthington Kilbourne 45-7 on the road in a Division I, Region 3 regional quarterfinal. The final score was listed by The Columbus Dispatch in its live playoff coverage and confirmed on the MaxPreps Ohio scoreboard. North improved to 9-3 and advanced to a regional semifinal, while Kilbourne’s season ended at 9-2.
The night could hardly have started worse for the Wolves, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s live account of the game. Kilbourne won the coin toss and deferred, and Dennis White returned the opening kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown just 12 seconds in. Kilbourne’s first possession drove deep into North territory, but the Wolves lost the ball on downs when Demetrius Curtis sacked quarterback Jackson Szabo on fourth-and-5, and North soon made it 14-0 on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Demetrius Neal-Nesbitt to Noah Dumas late in the first quarter, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Kilbourne answered with its only score early in the second quarter, a 32-yard touchdown pass from Szabo to Shawn Rice that cut the lead to 14-7, The Columbus Dispatch reported. North then closed the half with three straight touchdowns: a 1-yard run by Andyriq Thomas that capped a 91-yard drive, a 56-yard Neal-Nesbitt touchdown pass to Dumas, and a 10-yard scoring pass to Kymani Johnson after Curtis recovered a Szabo fumble. North led 35-7 at halftime against a Kilbourne offense that, according to The Columbus Dispatch, came in averaging 42.6 points a game.
North put the game into a running clock in the third quarter. Neal-Nesbitt threw his fourth touchdown pass of the night, a 44-yarder to White, and Niko Agganis added a 38-yard field goal to complete the scoring at 45-7, The Columbus Dispatch reported. There was no scoring in the fourth quarter.
The result was a defensive statement against one of central Ohio’s most productive quarterbacks. Szabo, a junior, entered the game having passed for 2,977 yards and 31 touchdowns and rushed for 1,183 yards and 22 scores this season, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s pregame report. North’s defense held the Wolves to a single touchdown. It was the first meeting between the two programs, The Columbus Dispatch noted.
North reached the quarterfinal by shutting out Groveport-Madison 37-0 in the first round on Oct. 30, a game in which Neal-Nesbitt completed all 21 of his passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Kilbourne, a top-four seed, had a first-round bye.
What happens next: Pickerington North plays at Upper Arlington in a Division I, Region 3 semifinal on Friday, Nov. 13. Upper Arlington, the No. 2 seed, beat Reynoldsburg 34-8 on Friday, according to the MaxPreps scoreboard. The winner advances to the Region 3 final on Nov. 20.