The Nansemond-Suffolk Academy football team turned a four-point deficit in the second quarter against host North Cross School on Saturday into a 26-point season-opening victory — 54-28.

“I think for an opening game, I was pleased,” Saints coach Lew Johnston said. “There were obviously some things we’ve got to work on. A typical opening game and opening game mistakes, but we called them correctable errors.”

NSA was the first to score thanks to senior running back Noah Giles, a name the Raiders likely grew wary of quickly. He scored about two and a half minutes into the game from 13 yards out.

Giles carried the ball 24 times on the afternoon for 278 yards, three scores, two 2-point conversions, and he also led the team in receiving yardage with 24 yards on two catches.

“The Giles kid played decent,” Johnston said, with decidedly tongue-in-cheek understatement.

The Raiders managed to keep up with Nansemond-Suffolk for a little while in the first half. They responded to Giles’ first touchdown a minute and 26 seconds later on a 10-yard run by junior quarterback Miles Lowman.

Giles scored his second touchdown on a 30-yard run to help give the Saints a 16-6 lead, but North Cross opened the second quarter scoring with a six-yard touchdown pass from Lowman to senior wide receiver Jordan Lowery.

Then, NSA turned the ball over, and the Raiders scored again, their only back-to-back scores in the game. This time, Lowman completed a short pass to Lowery, who converted a 34-yard touchdown to help give North Cross a 20-16 lead.

But Nansemond-Suffolk’s offense reasserted itself twice before halftime, first on a 17-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Robby Tew to senior running back Graham Moore.

“Robby Tew played well in his first start,” Johnston said. “I was pleased.”

Senior fullback Cole Christiansen ran the ball into the end zone from three yards out on the Saints’ next possession, leading to a 32-20 halftime score.

“The first half and the second half were really two different games,” Johnston said.

He gave the Raiders’ offense praise for having some effectiveness and noted that they did a couple of things that his team had not seen that caused his staff to make some halftime adjustments.

But the coach said the main reason the first and second half were different was the play of NSA’s defensive line.

“Our pass defense improved in the second half because of the pressure we got on the quarterback,” Johnston said.

Senior defensive tackle Connor King had a hand in five sacks for the game, as well as two tackles for loss, and linebacker Cole Christiansen finished with 10 tackles, the coach said.

He also highlighted senior inside linebacker Trent Taylor and senior defensive end Jack Johnson as standouts.

North Cross managed only 148 net yards of total offense. While it had 195 yards through the air, Nansemond-Suffolk limited the Raiders to -47 yards rushing.

And the Saints offense kept churning out points in the second half.

Giles scored on a 32-yard run, sophomore offensive/defensive lineman Chris Murphy scored on a two-yard run, and senior wide receiver Noah Serianni converted an 18-yard run for a touchdown.

In addition to having five different players score touchdowns, Nansemond-Suffolk featured four different players producing two-point conversions, including Christiansen, Giles and Serianni on three-yard runs and sophomore wide receiver Erek Smith on a 13-yard pass from Tew.

Explaining the diversity of scorers, Johnston said, “We’ve got a lot more weapons and wanted to use them.”

NSA racked up 576 yards of total offense, 516 of which came on the ground. Graham Moore finished the game with 12 carries for 114 yards, while Christiansen had eight carries for 79 yards, a touchdown and two 2-point conversions.

The Saints (1-0) host Bishop Ireton High School on Friday at 7 p.m.