Northside’s clutch defense seals Crosstown Showdown victory against Warner Robins

WARNER ROBINS — Wednesday’s Crosstown Showdown between Northside and Warner Robins was tied for roughly 64 minutes of the 2-1 final.

The Demons struck first 21:37 into the game. Star forward Jabez Htoo made a pass to the wing and got it back, shooting a cross into the box for Jeremiah Marshall to finish.

That broke the stalemate but only for 1:27.

Warner Robins’ back line challenged for possession in front of their own goal, but the Eagles slipped through and punched one past the keeper for the equalizer just under 16 minutes before halftime.

The winning goal was assisted by Joey Poth, who flipped the ball over defender Ezra Goings and made the connection to Angel Castaneda who stuffed the go-ahead goal with 14:04 to play.

Through the first 66 minutes either team only had the edge for a total of 1:31. That’s because the rest of the game was an intense, physical back-alley scrap.

Every inch was earned. Every tackle, every jockey and every pass, shot or dribble was through contact. In previous matchups Sid Littlefield’s Eagles have struggled to match physicality, but they responded in the Crosstown Showdown.

“We struggled all year meeting the physicality of other teams,” Littlefield said. “Obviously when you’re playing Warner Robins High School and you’re at Northside it’s a super intense game…I’m really proud of the fact that we got down by one and we stayed in it and got our goals back, and then eventually won.”

Answering the call required full effort at all times. There were multiple times outfielders came in the goal to deflect shots.

Chris Jara, who went down several times with injury, re-entered the game with under three minutes to go and saved a shot after the keeper was taken out. Christian Molden followed that with a deflection of his own.

Goalkeeper Elias Sanchez-Perez took a risky slide into the ball for a clear in the final 90 seconds of the game. The hustle plays ended up being the difference for Northside.

“It was really all about effort,” Littlefield said. “The defenders, we had a lot of guys go down with various injuries, but they wanted to get back in the game. [Chris Jara], who came off, was the one who stopped the ball in the goal line. It was 100% effort on their part, just trying to hold on and do what they needed to do to win.”

Littlefield called it a team effort, especially when it came to guarding a talented Demons front.

Htoo is skilled with the ball at his feet and his help out wide is capable in their own right. They put plenty of pressure on the Eagles’ defense but everybody stepped up to help.

“[Jabez Htoo] is just absolutely incredible,” Littlefield said. “He did a lot of work just getting through. A lot of it was team defense things; people stepped up and made plays when they had to make them. They could have stayed back, they could have let somebody else try to handle it, but really on defense it was a team effort more than maybe any other game we’ve played this year.”

Wednesday night got Northside back on track in the Crosstown Showdown. Last year they lost 4-3 in the only match played; a nine-game winning streak dating back to 2016 preceded that.

With the win the Eagles are 11-2 against the Demons since 2015, when the match history started being recorded on MaxPreps.

UP NEXT

Northside’s last home game of the season is April 13 against Bleckley County.

Warner Robins returns to region play on April 10 at Perry.