GASTON – Northampton – West improved their record to 2-0 here Friday night with a 46-23 win over Northwest Halifax.

Hurricanes Head Coach Diego Hasty wanted his team to come out strong and that’s exactly what they did. On the first play from scrimmage junior quarterback Randy Turner faked a handoff to running back Titus Lee and ran 66 yards to the endzone for the early 6-0 lead.

The Hurricanes forced the Vikings to go three and out and found themselves with the ball back on their own 12 yard line. They managed to drive to the 30- yard line before punting the ball back to the Vikings.

This time NW Halifax took advantage driving 57 yards to even the score. It was a 32-yard pass from Robert Moore to wideout Kenzie Knight that eventually found the endzone. The kick by Keith Rudd split the uprights to give the Vikings the 7-0 lead.

It took the Vikings just over a minute and a half to reclaim the lead as Turner found Keith Garner for a 44 yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion failed giving the home team the 12-7 lead with 4:33 remaining in the first quarter.

The Viking looked poised to score again driving 36 yards before the Hurricanes Mack Parker forced a fumble. Lee recovered to give his squad the ball back on their own 45 yard line.

West scored again when, after two consecutive runs by Lee netted 37 yards, Turner sent a floater towards the corner of the endzone. That’s where Chris Smith leaped for the catch and touchdown. The Hurricanes again failed to convert for the extra points but improved their lead to 18-7.

The first quarter ended and the second quarter began much like the first. This time it took just over three minutes before Turner scampered 32 yards to cap off a 5 play 52-yard drive.

Despite a 15 yard penalty for too many men on the field, the hurricanes got their first two point conversion of the evening when Dasmine Moody broke about 3 tackles on his way to the endzone. His run stretched the lead to 26-7 with 8:41 remaining in the first half.

Neither team was able to do much, going back and forth, until Lee intercepted a pass on the Vikings 24 yard line and ran it back for the score. The two-point conversion failed and gave the home team the 32-7 advantage.

The Vikings refused to give up driving 55 yards but failed to score as Lee knocked the ball out of the hands of a Halifax receiver in the endzone to end the half.

Both teams came out of halftime unable to do much offensively as the teams traded the ball until Smith returned a botched punt 14 yards to the endzone. The two point conversion run by Turnerfound paydirt and increased the home lead to 40-7.

Northwest Halifax managed to score again when Bobby Hedgepeth pounded his way into the endzone with 4:12 remaining in the third quarter to cap an eight-play, 55 yard drive. Moore’s two-point conversion pass to Knight cut the West lead to 40-15.

Both teams again traded the ball until Moody found the endzone on an eight yard run to extend the Hurricane lead to 46-15.

The final score of the evening came when Jamel Wade scampered 24 yards to the endzone late in the fourth quarter. It was too little, too late however as the Hurricanes simply ran out the clock for the 46-23 victory.

Hastings was pleased with his team’s play.

&uot;We needed to come out fast and get on the scoreboard early, we certainly did that by scoring on the first play&uot; said the coach. &uot;We had some injuries that hurt us tonight but we continued to improve and are beginning to gel as a team.&uot;