It might seem early to declare the district opener a must-win game, but that is exactly the mindset North Mesquite had for Friday's 12-5A contest against Tyler Lee.

With a bye last week, the Stallions had two weeks to prepare for the game, and with the newly-aligned district shaping up to be a dogfight for the four playoff berths, they knew they could ill-afford to fall behind in the postseason race.

North Mesquite took the field with playoff-like intensity from the opening kickoff, seizing control early on and never letting up in a 27-7 victory at Mesquite Memorial Stadium.

The Stallions improve to 2-3 overall, but more importantly, to 1-0 in district play, while the Red Raiders fall to 1-5 and 0-2 in 12-5A.

"It helped that we had two weeks of preparation and I thought our kids communicated well on the field," North Mesquite head coach Mike Robinson said. "The coordinators did a great job, the coaches did a great job and the kids responded to the coaching and did what they were coached to do."

The Stallions did not score on their opening drive, but they did set the tone by pinning Tyler Lee deep in its own territory. On the Red Raiders' first play from scrimmage, North Mesquite stripped Laquintas Wallace of the ball and London Spain recovered at the 12-yard line.

Three plays later, Cody Williams snuck in from a yard out to take a 7-0 lead.

That was the first of five turnovers forced by the Stallion defense, including a 33-yard interception return for a touchdown by Thomas Oberg later in the first half that made it 20-0.

"One of the things we wanted to do was show them something that they hadn't seen and try to catch them off balance and we did that; even though we didn't score right away, what it did was it allowed us to play the field position game," Robinson said. "Good defense, scheming and tackling allowed us to create some turnovers and I don't care who you are, when you turn the ball over like they did, you have to be able to capitalize and we capitalized tonight and fortunately were able to come out of this with a victory."

Outside of a 70-yard drive on the opening possession of the third quarter that yielded their only points, the Red Raiders struggled to do much against the North Mesquite defense, which allowed only 292 yards in the game.

The Stallion offense rewarded that effort with plenty of scoring support. After a fumble recovery by Antonia Wilson early in the second quarter, North Mesquite drove the length of the field and after Williams had a 22-yard touchdown run negated by a holding penalty, Ta'Varius Luke scampered into the end zone from 21 yards out on the very next play to make it 13-0.

Oberg's interception extended the advantage to 20-0 with 4:06 left in the first half, and following a quick three-and-out by Tyler Lee, the Stallions moved down the field and converted when Kayveon Brown made a one-handed catch in the end zone for a 23-yard touchdown from Williams to give them a 27-0 lead.

North Mesquite is a run-based offense, but the touchdown was the kind of play the coaching staff is looking for to provide some needed balance.

"The passing game for us is we're going to take what they are going to give us and try to make some plays and that is what Kayveon did, he made one heck of a catch down there," Robinson said. "We're going to try to run the ball, keep our defense off the field and keep the clock running ... but whenever we have an opportunity to make a play, let's make a play, and the receivers responded tonight."

Tyler Lee finally got on the scoreboard early in the third quarter on a 17-yard touchdown run by Le Terrance Simmons to close to within 27-7, but came up empty on three other possessions in North Mesquite territory.

The Stallions forced one punt, Elijah Banks forced a fumble that was recovered by Wilson and the final drive ended with a failed fourth-down attempt.

North Mesquite knows there is a long road ahead if it hopes to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2007, but Friday was a definite step in the right direction.

"Overall, I'm proud of how we played. We needed to come out ready and we did that," Robinson said. "It is a good young group, it is a good fun group and this is a big win for us."

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