BY MARK MORING, Eastern Shore Post, Sept. 5, 2025
The old clichés — “a game of inches” and “it’s the little things that count” — rang all too true for Northampton High School’s football team in its season opener against visiting Northumberland on Friday, Aug. 29.
But a few fourth-quarter miscues — including a missed tackle that led to a pivotal touchdown for the Indians, and a dropped pass that would’ve been the go-ahead score for the Yellow Jackets — left Northampton on the short end of a 29-24 loss.
Still, it was a promising opener for the Jackets, by far the best team on the Shore a year ago, when they went 8-3, won the district, and advanced to the state playoffs. That team got off to a slow start, too, losing its first two before reeling off eight straight wins.
Against the Indians, Northampton’s vaunted running game was strong, piling up 246 yards, led by Khaidn Davis (91 yards, one touchdown), Elijah Hope (74 yards), Jerry Sturgis (54 yards, one touchdown), and Jeremiah White (28 yards, one touchdown). Hope also led the Jackets’ defense with eight tackles and one fumble recovery.
And on the few times that Northumberland was able to stop the run, Jackets quarterback Lucas Kindt rose to the occasion, completing six of 13 passes for 119 yards. One was a crucial 46-yarder to Davis in the fourth quarter, setting up a touchdown a few plays later when Davis plunged in from the 1-yard-line, cutting the deficit to 23-14.
Northampton was flagged for an unsportsmanlike penalty on that play, pushing the Jackets back to the 18-yard-line for the 2-point conversion attempt. Kindt dropped back to pass, saw an opening, and scampered to paydirt to make it 23-16 with 8:04 left.
The Jackets then had a successful onside kick that was recovered by Jeremiah White, but they turned the ball over on downs. Two plays later, Northumberland quarterback Jasir Smith shook off a tackle near the line of scrimmage and then dashed 60 yards to the end zone. The conversion failed, but the Indians led 29-16 with 4:44 remaining.
Northampton quickly moved downfield, scoring on White’s 16-yard run. Elijah Hope’s 2-point conversion run made it 29-24 with 2:54 remaining.
At that point, Northampton’s enthusiastic PA announcer, Shavonne Ruffin, repeated a line she’d said a few times throughout the evening:
“I don’t know what you got, everybody, but we’ve got Hope!”
Indeed, Hope and his teammates still had a chance. Their onside kick attempt failed, but they held their foes on downs, taking over near midfield with 1:54 left.
Still some hope.
Three plays later, Kindt found White streaking down the middle and launched a deep pass. White had a step on his defender but was unable to reel in the pass at the 15 on what would’ve likely been a touchdown. The Jackets failed to convert on fourth down, and the Indians ran out the clock — and Northampton’s last hope.
“I think we had a great game,” said Kindt, “but there are a few little things we can do better on. We’re going to work on it and come back next week ready for a win.”
“We picked things up near the end of the game, but we just couldn’t get the win,” added senior lineman Jordan Delk. “But we did play well against a really good football team.”
Their coach, John Edney, agreed.
“Just a break here and there,” Edney said, wondering what-if. “If we catch this ball or don’t let that one slip by us, then things would be different.
“But we did some things really well. We ran the ball well, even though they (focused on stopping the run). And I thought Lucas, in his first start at quarterback, played really well. And our defense played well. But Northumberland is a really good team.”
