What We Saw: Providence Day 42, Northwestern 35

CHARLOTTE | The Uptown Charlotte lights were not too bright for Providence Day, the defending NCISAA State champions as they used red zone stops and an offensive explosion to hold off Northwestern 42-35 on Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium, the first ever high school contest played in the NFL stadium.     EARLY JITTERS   The first quarter and a half featured tons of defensive highlights.     Providence Day QB [player_tooltip player_id='91362' first='Jadyn' last='Davis'] (pictured above) connected with [player_tooltip player_id='147623' first='Channing' last='Goodwin'] for a 25-yard completion but the Chargers immediately fumbled the next play and [player_tooltip player_id='1360210' first='Mason' last='Grier'] recovered.     Northwestern was guilty of roughing the kicker which extended a Providence Day drive midway through the first quarter. And then when they elected to go for it on 4th and 8, the receiver ran out of bounds and came back in to make the catch, resulting in an illegal touching penalty.     Jaylen Burris showed incredible concentration on a 17-yard completion on a screen pass that was behind him that went into Trojan territory. But on 4th and 2, Northwestern QB [player_tooltip player_id='241044' first='Finley' last='Polk'] was picked off by [player_tooltip player_id='919611' first='Jaylen' last='Himes'] to start the second quarter. He read the play perfectly when the Trojans tried to run a screen and go.   "Just so proud of our kids and the way they competed. We talk about all the time, the big part of playing football is delayed gratification. Eight months these guys have been preparing and training for this one game and you've got to fight adversity. We had things pretty comfortable and we talked about it before the game, we said look, we've got to win on the last play of the game. There were some things that happened that made it more interesting than it needed to be, but the fact that we overcame and found a way to win, I'm just incredibly proud of them," Providence Day coach Chad Grier said.     BREAKING THE DROUGHT   Providence Day RB [player_tooltip player_id='831343' first='Ian' last='Cline'] ran hard throughout the night, but he showed an ability to make catches on the run, which included a 31-yard screen pass to get the Chargers deep out of their own backfield in the second quarter.    [player_tooltip player_id='919599' first='Cairo' last='Skanes'] was a standout defensively. One interception on the night came when the Trojans were in position to score.   "We just made too many mistakes against a good football team. You can't turn the ball over three times, have a mistake in the kicking game like roughing the kicker giving them more chances to play. It's good for us in the first game to have a chance to improve on the mistakes we made," Northwestern coach Page Wofford said.   The connection between Davis and [player_tooltip player_id='147622' first='Jordan' last='Shipp'] was active all night. They connected for a 35-yard completion on a contested catch, beating two Trojan defenders. That led to the first score of the night, a 6-yard Cline run to make it 7-0 Providence Day with 9:22 to play before the half.   Shipp is an excellent route runner and knows where to find the grass. He came up with a 37-yard completion 4th and 2 towards the end of the half. The next play he scored on a 17-yard pass to make it 14-0 Chargers with 1:48 left before halftime. Shipp lead the team in receptions with 13 for 234 yards and two touchdowns.   "I give all the credit to my line, all the credit to my quarterback. All I had to do is run past the guy. Jadyn put it in the right spot. O-line gave me enough time to get where I needed to get and it's a team effort. It wasn't just me," Shipp said.   It didn't take Northwestern long to respond, however. Polk connected with Jaylen Burris for a 75-yard TD pass as no Providence Day defender was within 15 yards of him with 1:18 left. But Davis came right back, connecting with Himes on a 18-yard TD with 16 seconds to play to take a 21-7 lead to the locker room.   CREATING DISTANCE   Goodwin got in on the scoring action with an 81-yard TD pass with 10:18 to play in the third quarter. The duo of Davis and Goodwin are currently committed to Michigan and Goodwin caught the ball and was gone. He made a great catch late in the contest with 8:20 left to make it 42-21. He finished with 5 catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns.    Northwestern would not go away quietly as they recovered an onside kick and Polk connected with [player_tooltip player_id='1267334' first='Kameron' last='Vance'] from 11 yards out to make it 42-35 to close the scoring. The onside was not successful as Providence Day ran the clock out.   "We don't talk about getting down a lot but our motto is so what, now what? Our guys keep fighting and I'm proud of them for that but it's what we want to do in our program and the way they're coached already," Wofford said.