Despite the final score, North Hall wasn’t trying to do anything flashy offensively against Pickens on Friday night at The Brickyard.

It was simply a case of the Trojans (4-3, 3-0 Region 7A-AAA) finding it easy to run the ball up and down the field in a 48-0 win.

"I didn’t really see this one coming tonight," North Hall coach Bob Christmas said. "But it’s really hard to tell since the people they (Pickens) have played, we haven’t played yet.

"We had that game film, but it’s hard to tell from film."

But it was crystal clear from the start that the Trojans were going to be able to run away with this one. North Hall running back Avery Nix scored on a 65-yard run on the game’s first play. The Trojans scored touchdowns in each of their first seven drives.

"I thought our kids played extremely hard for about a quarter-and-a-half, until it really got out of control," Christmas added. "We got to play a bunch of people, and I’m proud of our kids they work so hard and are striving to get better, and they are."

The win was good enough news in itself for the Trojans. But it got better when North Hall found out that Chestatee (4-3, 3-1) lost to White County on Friday night. North Hall’s win combined with Chestatee’s loss to White County (3-4, 1-2), puts the Trojans in sole possession of first place in the subregion.

The Trojans’ nonsubregion losses to Gainesville, Flowery Branch and Buford clearly haven’t sidetracked their determination to make it back to the postseason.

"We know the games in the subregion are where you make your money," North Hall quarterback Blayne Gilmer said. "Our team is working extremely hard every week."

Nix and Peyton Wilhoite each scored three touchdowns in the first half for the Trojans.

Beau Dehass scored for North Hall on a 14-yard pass from Gilmer in the first quarter. Dehass also had an interception for North Hall’s defense.

Nix scored on each of his carries and finished with a team-high 91 yards. Wilhoite, a junior, scored on runs of 20, 13 and 43 yards and finished with 84 yards on only four carries. The Trojans finished the game with 290 rushing yards and 345 total yards of offense.

Thomas Sprague had another solid night for North Hall’s defense with 16 tackles and pushed his season total to 96. Cole Smith was also in double digits with 11 tackles for North Hall’s defense. The Dragons finished with only 69 total yards of offense.

"Our defense played very well tonight to hold them under 100 yards total," Christmas said.

The formula for North Hall is simple now. If the Trojans win the final three regular season games against Chestatee, Lumpkin County and Gilmer, they would be assured the No. 2 spot from Region 7-AAA in the playoffs and a subsequent first-round home playoff game at The Brickyard.

Pickens visits Creekview at 7:30 p.m. next Friday in Canton.