Rarely does a team commit 130 yards worth of penalties and still win, but that is how things turned out for North Davidson in a 35-3 rout of East Davidson Friday at Eagle Stadium.

Despite the incredible amount of penalty yards, the Black Knights held East to 126 yards of total offense, and were able to outrun the Eagles on offense all night long. Running back Ryan Morgan scored three touchdowns and ran for 115 yards, paving the way to the blowout.

Through all of that, EDHS actually trailed 3-0 early.

East mounted its lone scoring drive on the first possession of the game in unusual fashion. The two teams combined for 60 penalty yards over the course of the drive that started on the 20 of the Eagles. When the yellow flags stopped flying, East had moved the ball down to the North 20, where the drive stalled and Taylor Warren booted home a 37-yard field goal.

The East defense forced a three-and-out immediately and was going to get field position around the 50. Dylan Hutchins muffed the punt, though, as the ball fell to the deck and the Black Knights recovered at the East 43. Six plays later, Morgan carried the ball over the right side and in from 24 yards out, pushing the visitors ahead 7-3.

“We came out and did some good things on that first drive to keep everybody’s hopes,” said East coach Bryan Lingerfelt. “Then we played great on defense, but we had the turnover and it started snowballing after that.”

North quarterback Brennen Dodd was too quick for the Eagle defense all night long, dancing around defenders for large chunks of yards. His arm got him in trouble at times, though, as he was picked off in the end zone by Justin Mounts on the next drive.

Breathing a sigh of relief, EDHS was poised to turn the turnover into something positive, but they ended up giving right back only two plays later on a fumble by Malcolm Wimmer.

North recovered on the East 23 and Morgan converted his second tally of the night on a run up the gut, upping the North advantage to 14-3.

East netted negative yardage on its next drive and was pinned deep in its own territory.

Following the punt by Mounts, North worked quickly going the 31 yards in one play, as Tevin Tuttle took the end around to the house for a 21-3 score.

East got into the fieldhouse with no further damage, and they might have been better off staying in there.

On the first play from scrimmage, North’s Morgan completed the hat trick, blasting through the hole for a 63-yard jaunt. North tacked on one more to completely ground the Eagles.

“We will lick our wounds and try to grow up from this,” Lingerfelt said. “Hopefully, we can come out here with a good attitude on Monday.”

Notes: Dylan Gallimore bulled his way to 106 rushing yards on 25 attempts ... East will travel to Southwestern Randolph next week at 7:30 p.m.

Sports Editor Zach Kepley can be reached at 888-3631, or at kepley@tvilletimes.com.