COXSACKIE – The message Norwich football coach Mike Chrystie and his staff delivered to the team this past week was received loud and clear.

“Coming off the loss to Guilderland (last week), we wanted to get back to basics and the fundamental issues that came up last week that were within our control,” Chrystie said in the wake of Friday night’s 53-14 rout of Coxsackie-Athens in a non-league clash on Friday night. “We prepared for Coxsackie-Athens, but really it was us looking at ourselves in the mirror and making the adjustments.”

Norwich (1-1) regrouped against Guilderland in the second half last week and quickly rode that momentum into the first quarter.

Norwich scored less than three minutes into the game. A five-play 57-yard TD drive was capped by Zack Parker’s 16-yard scoring run.

Parker didn’t touch the ball much, but he did lead Norwich’s offense with 107 yards rushing on six carries, and he added a long TD run on the final play of the first half.

Norwich scored seven touchdowns overall in the first half and used just 16 total offensive plays to do it.

One of those scores was likely a harbinger of great things to come down the road. Freshmen twin brothers Cooper Chrystie and Carter Chrystie hooked up on a 50-yard scoring pass, the first TD pass of Cooper Chrystie’s young career, that gave NHS a three-touchdown lead.

Cooper Chrystie added a second TD pass in the first half – an 18-yarder to Josh Lindridge – and scored Norwich’s final touchdown in the third quarter running it in from short yardage.

While Coach Chrystie certainly was tickled with his twin sons’ production, from a team perspective, the diversity of offensive contributors spoke more to the team’s versatility and balance.

Kaden Downey and Leland Montgomery also added first-half rushing touchdowns, and Lindridge chalked up a TD for the special teams unit returning a second-quarter kickoff 79 yards to paydirt.

“We’ll always remember Cooper’s first TD pass to his brother,” Coach Chrystie said. “It was really nice seeing a number of different guys getting into the end zone.”

Norwich finished with 319 yards of total offense averaging 11 yards per play. The Purple Tornado travel to traditional Section IV powerhouse, Waverly, this week.

“Defensively, we’re playing well and we’re playing physical,” Coach Chrystie said. “We’ll find out where we are (this week) against a very good Waverly team.”

Score by Quarters

Nor.  26  20  7  0—53

C-A     0   6  0   8—14

Scoring Summary

N, Zack Parker 16 run (Parker kick); N, Kaden Downey 10 run (kick failed); N, Cooper Chrystie 50 pass to Carter Chrystie (kick failed); N, Cooper Chrystie 24 pass to Josh Lindridge (Parker kick); N, Leland Montgomery 18 run (Parker kick); CA Tristian Canning 15 pass to Kyle Scott (pass failed); N, Josh Lindridge 79 kickoff return (kick failed); N, Zack Parker 62 run (Parker kick); N, Cooper Chrystie 2 run (Parker kick), CA, Craig Farrell 14 run (Farrell run)

Individual statistics

Rushing:  CA team – 27-143. N:  Zack Parker 6-107, Cooper Chrystie 5-51, Tiernan Lindsay 6-31, Kasson Stubbs, 1-26, Leland Montgomery 1-18, Kaden Downey 2-13; Josh Lindridge 1-(-3). Total:  22-243.

Passing: CA team – 9-24-1, 1 TD, 48 yards.  Cooper Chrystie 3-5-0, 83 yards, 2 TDs.

Receiving:  N:  Carter Chrystie 1-50; Josh Lindridge 1; Kasson Stubbs 1-9.