Nansemond River and York scrimmaged on the gridiron Friday night at Arrowhead Stadium with both teams tallying three touchdowns during the evening.

The first team Warrior defense took a few minutes to get their feet on the ground, and more importantly, put some Falcons on the ground, as the visitors scored twice in their first five plays from scrimmage.

On third and five from the York 35, a pass down the right hash to a Falcon tight end went for a 65-yard score.

Two plays later, a 70-yard touchdown run was the result when River’s defense overcommitted on a counter play.

The Warriors regrouped and stopped the Falcons on their next two sets of downs.

Two sacks and a forced fumble closed out the York possession with a couple positive marks for the Warriors.

River’s first team offense took the field and moved the ball well.

After a York penalty pushed the ball into Falcon territory, Justin Topping looked as though he was going to score on a well-faked triple option keeper around the left end.

It was such a good fake to the fullback that the umpire blew his whistle, thinking the ball was with the back somewhere in the big pile of linemen.

Topping’s run would have been a 30 yard score, but had to &uot;settle&uot; for a 23-yard TD pass to Darrell Freeney.

River’s second possession, under the leadership of Terry Bullock, was a methodical 14-play, 70-yard touchdown drive.

Jamar Jarrell ran around the right side from three yards out to finish off the drive.

After halftime, River forced Falcon punts on three of four possessions.

A Topping interception gave York the ball at the Warrior 30.

From there, the Falcons scored three plays later for their only score of the second half.

The Warriors got their third score, moving 70 yards almost entirely on the ground, with Jarrell getting his second touchdown of the night from a 14-yard run off an option pitch by Topping.

Nansemond River will get things officially started Sept. 2 at home against Kecoughtan.

King’s Fork will also be starting their season that night at home versus Norview.

Lakeland will be at home taking on Lake Taylor and Nansemond-Suffolk Academy will be traveling to Windsor for their opener.

Kickoffs at River, Fork, and Lakeland are set for 7 p.m., and 7:30 is the start time at Windsor.

andrew.giermak@suffolknewsherald.com