After eight quarters of scoreless football, Newton finally got a taste of the end zone Friday. And once it touched the Rams’ pallet once, they kept coming back for more. 

Even still, it was Newton’s defense that showed itself dominant in a 30-0 home victory against Shiloh, setting up the Rams for their first score after forcing a Shiloh fumble which Newton recovered on the General’s 39-yard line. 

Quarterback Myron Middlebrooks then burst through the line for a 13-yard keeper which set him up to find J.J. Holloman two plays later on a 1-yard scoring strike that put Newton up 7-0 at the 8:07 mark in the second quarter. 

Shiloh had a promising drive end on a failed fourth down conversion and saw its next drive get stopped after a blocked punt that set Newton up with first and goal from Shiloh’s 8-yard line. 

From there, Preston Taylor booted a 20-yard field goal to extend Newton’s lead to 10-0 at the 2:59 mark of the second quarter. 

The Rams defense became their offense once again when on Shiloh’s next offensive possession, linebacker Jeremiah Bundridge deflected D.J. Walker’s pass into the hands of Deonta Clark who returned it down the left sideline for a 33-yard pick-six. 

Newton found the end zone one more time before the half when Middlebrooks connected with Xavier Brown, who benefited from a crushing block by wideout David Busto, sealing the edge for Brown to find the end zone from 32 yards out. The touchdown gave Newton a 23-0 lead at halftime. 

Newton would put on the game’s final score in a penalty-filled third quarter with a 1-yard touchdown run by Henderson, who spent a good amount of time at running back. 

The Rams improved to 5-3-1 and 2-2 in Region 8-AAAAAAA ahead of next Friday’s rivalry game with Rockdale. With a win against Rockdale and a South Gwinnett loss to Archer Friday or Grayson next week, Newton could slide into third place in the region.