Barnes County North held a six-point lead over Napoleon-Gackle-Streeter after the first quarter Saturday.

Then NGS's Evan Gross took over.

The senior tailback scored three second-quarter touchdowns on the way to an efficient 175-yard afternoon as the Imperials rolled past the Bison 44-6 at the Community Bowl 9-man Jamboree.

Gross, who rushed for 2,491 yards as a junior last year, scored on runs of 4, 20 and 18 yards in the second frame while rushing for 109 of his 154 first-half yards. Overall, he made the most of each one of the 17 carries he had on the sizzling 99-degree afternoon. His shortest gain of the contest went for 4 yards. He had 15 runs of 5 or more yards, and six of 10 or more.

"Evan's been that way for a long time. - You can always count on him to get positive yards," NGS coach Kelly McCleary said. "With his quickness and strength, you give him just a little bit of an opening, and he'll get you those yards."

As usual, Gross gave credit to his offensive line, which has a different look from the one he ran behind last year.

"We have only one starting offensive lineman back, and we're smaller than we were last year," he said. "But we have confidence in the guys we have in there. I told them that it's all about them. They were going to be the biggest key for us, and they did a great job blocking."

The offensive line cleared the way for 316 rushing yards.

"I think that number alone shows how well they did today," Gross said.

Gross put the Imperials on top 8-6 27 seconds into the second quarter with a 4-yard TD run and a 2-point conversion.

Gross had 50 yards on the 61-yard scoring march.

After a BCN three-and-out, Gross capped off a five-play, 55-yard drive with a 20-yard run.

The Imperials were back in business after Cole Laber recovered an on-sides kick on the BCN 45. Gross broke loose for an 18-yard TD three plays later, and Damon Weigel made a one-handed grab of a Brady Fettig pass for the two-pointer to give NGS a 22-6 lead.

After holding BCN on downs on their own 40, the Imperials marched the length of the field in 10 plays, scoring on a 4-yard run by Laber. Laber also ran for the two-pointer.

"We executed so well in the second quarter," McCleary said. "(BCN) blitzed us up the middle early on, so we went to the outside to try to take advantage of Evan's quickness. (Gross) started picking up some big yards and that opened up other things for us."

NGS's passing game accounted for the Imperials' next TD - a 7-yard toss from Fettig to Weigel with 2:16 left in the third quarter. Fettig tacked on the 2-pointer.

McCleary was pleased with Fettig's play at quarterback. The senior and second-year starter completed seven of 12 throws for 64 yards, and rushed 14 times for another 62.

"Brady mostly handed it off last year. - This year, we're putting more on his shoulders," McCleary said "He threw it well and ran it well today."

Jonah Schwartzenberger's 2-yard run with 1:14 left in the contest closed NGS's scoring.

BCN's lone score came with 4:23 left in the first quarter, when quarterback Kyle Heinze tallied on a 1-yard sneak. Heinze connected with Garrett Steckler for 59 yards to the NGS 3.

BCN 6 0 0 0 - 6

NGS 0 30 8 6 - 44

Scoring summary

First quarter

BCN - Kyle Heinze 1 run (pass failed), 4:23

Second quarter

NGS - Evan Gross 4 run (Gross run), 11:33

NGS - Gross 20 run (run failed), 7:41

NGS - Gross 18 run (Damon Weigel pass from Brady Fettig), 6:38

NGS - Cole Laber 4 run (Laber run), 1:18

Third quarter

NGS - Weigel 7 pass from Fettig (Fettig run), 2:16

Fourth quarter

NGS - Jonah Schwartzenberger 2 run (run failed), 1:14

Team statistics

BCN NGS

First downs 4 18

Rushes-yards 15-40 53-316

Passing yards 95 64

Comp-Att-Int 8-20-1 7-12-0

Turnovers 2 1

Penalties-yards 2-10 2-20

Individual statistics

Rushing: BCN - Tucker Bartlett 5-16, Seth Peterson 4-15, Kyle Heinze 4-12, Jeff Baumen 2-(-)3. NGS - Evan Gross 17-175, Brady Fettig 14-62, Cole Laber 8-29, Damon Weigel 4-29, Jared Reis 7-14, Jonah Schwartzenberger 2-4, Donovan Gross 1-2.

Passing: BCN - Heinze 7-16-1, 91 yards; Jeff Baumen 1-4-0, 4 yards. NGS - Fettig 7-12-0, 64 yards.

Receiving: BCN - Garrett Steckler 4-74, Tanner Hovland 2-7, Justin Magee 1-10, Cody Christ 1-4. NGS - Weigel 5-52, Corey Baumgartner 1-10, Cory Knutson 1-2.

Interceptions: NGS, Fettig.

Records: Napoleon-GS 1-0. BCN 0-2.

South Border 36, GCC 8

South Border didn't have to travel very far to build a quick 16-point lead.

The Mustangs covered just 66 yards total on their first two possessions, but got into the end zone twice, sending them on their way to a 36-8 victory.

A GCC fumble on the game's opening possession put the Mustangs on the Cougars' 29. Fullback Tyler Meidinger bulled his way into the end zone from the 1-yard stripe three plays later, and tailback Ross Martell ran for the two-point conversion to give South Border an 8-0 lead 1:32 into the game.

The Mustangs started their next possession on the GCC 37 following a nine-yard punt. Martell scored from 6 yards out seven plays later, and quarterback Travis Geiszler passed to Tallon Lippert for the two-pointer to make it 16-0 with 6:09 left in the first quarter.

"We're a young team, and it's important for us to have a good start," said Jason Klusmann, who shares South Border's head coaching duties with Brad Eik. "We had some positive things happen in the early moments, and we were able to take advantage. That set the tone for the rest of the game."

It got worse for GCC. The Cougars had trouble handling the ensuing kickoff and wound up on their own 1-yard line. On the next play, South Border's Brayden Salzer broke through and dropped Jesse Ott in the end zone for a safety to raise the Mustangs' lead to 18.

South Border went to the air for their next score as Geiszler and Lippert connected for a 51-yard TD.

Then the Mustangs took the long, sustained route to paydirt. After a promising GCC drive ended with a fumble on the Cougars' 22, Martell capped off a 12-play, 78-yard TD drive with a 1-yard plunge with 1:58 left in the first half. The march consumed a little more than six minutes.

Martell and the Mustangs' offensive line controlled the contest from the start. Martell rushed for 133 yards in the first half and finished with 190 on 32 carries. The Mustangs totaled 220 yards on the ground.

"The offensive line really picked it up," said Martell, a 180-pound junior. "We have three sophomores, a junior and a freshman starting up front, and they had a solid game. It's fun to run the ball when you have that kind of blocking ahead of you."

Martell made his debut at tailback Saturday. He started at quarterback in South Border's season opener Tuesday.

"We worked on the I-formation the last couple of days and decided to give Ross a try back there," Klusmann said. "He's a good athlete, and he runs hard. We think we've found an offense that can work for us."

The defense accounted for South Border's final score. Late in the third, Geiszler picked off a GCC pass on the dead run and took it 24 yards to the end zone.

The Cougars finally broke through in the fourth quarter, scoring on a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Kyle Hoverson with 5:55 left. Hoverson had 71 yards rushing, but was only 5-for-15 passing for 35 yards.

GCC 0 0 0 8 - 8

SB 18 12 6 0 - 36

Scoring summary

First quarter

SB - Tyler Meidinger 1 run (Ross Martell run), 10:28

SB - Martell 6 run (Tallon Lippert pass from Travis Geiszler), 6:09

SB - Safety, Brayden Salzer tackle in the end zone, 5:58

Second quarter

SB - Lippert 51 pass from Geiszler (run failed), 11:30

SB - Martell 1 run (pass failed), 1:58

Third quarter

SB - Geiszler 24 interception return (run failed), :50

Fourth quarter

GCC - Kyle Hoverson 1 run (Shawn Skaufel pass from Hoverson), 5:55

Team statistics

GCC SB

First downs 13 14

Rushes-yards 33-186 44-220

Passing yards 35 51

Comp-Att-Int 5-15-1 1-6-0

Turnovers 4 1

Penalties-yards 4-35 1-10

Individual statistics

Rushing: GCC - Jesse Ott 17-75, Kyle Hoverson 13-71, Logan Urness 3-40. SB - Ross Martell 32-190, Tyler Meidinger 8-26, Andrew Jochim 3-8, Travis Geiszler 2-0, Michael Bichler 1-(-)4.

Passing: GCC - Hoverson 5-15-1, 35 yards. SB - Geiszler 1-6-0, 51 yards.

Receiving: GCC - Urness 2-29, Justin Erickson 1-4, Ott 2-2. SB - Tallon Lippert 1-51.

Interceptions: SB, Geiszler.

Records: South Border 1-1, GCC 0-2.