The North Moore football team punched the ball into the end zone on the opening drive of Friday’s contest at Fayetteville Christian School.

Senior quarterback Luke Auman crossed the goal line in the first quarter, giving the Mustangs a 6-0 lead. But after that host Fayetteville Christian cranked up its offensive machine, scoring 34 unanswered points for a 34-6 victory over the winless Mustangs.

“After the opening kickoff, we took the ball right down the field and scored,” said North Moore coach Greg Simmons. “We executed well on the drive. We were playing without three linemen and we had some jayvees playing on the line. We gave up some big plays and that hurt us. We’re thin anyway and we had some kids go down. We were scrambling to fill out our line-up most of the game. We just ran out of gas.

“The guys are showing a lot of improvement and hopefully we’ll continue to do so. The guys competed hard and we’re starting to see some confidence.”

Fayetteville Christian, a school that competes in the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association, finished the contest with 522 yards of total offense. Junior quarterback Tyler Sweat accounted for 246 passing yards and threw three touchdowns, two to senior Bryan Moore.

Andre Starks had a big game, rushing the ball for 150 yards on 10 carries and scored a touchdown on 36-yard run in the second quarter.

Their leading rusher, senior Bernard Smalls finished the game with 82 yards on 10 carries and scored a touchdown.

Mustang senior running back Kyle Kidd had 60 yards rushing on six carries for a 10-yard average per rush. Auman finished with 15 yards passing with Adrian Wall pulling in a pass for 12 yards.

After last week’s five-turnover game, the Mustangs did a much better job protecting the ball, losing only two fumbles.

They did have some costly penalties and a couple of snaps that they didn’t handle very well.

On the opening kickoff, host Fayetteville Christian tried to squib kick the ball, but the Mustangs came up with the ball on the Mustangs’ 30-yard line.

From there, North Moore marched right down the field and the drive ended on Auman’s 1-yard plunge. The extra point kick was blocked, giving the Mustangs’ their first lead of the year at 6-0.

Fayetteville Christian scored later in the first quarter when Moore pulled in the first of his two touchdown receptions from eight yards out. The extra point attempt was blocked and the first period ended with the game tied at 6.

Fayetteville Christian exploded for 20 points in the second period, with the first score coming on a 29-yard pass from Sweat to Moore.

Moore grabbed another pass from Sweat for the two-point conversion, putting his team up 14-6.

Fayetteville Christian’s next score came on a 36-yard run by Starks, but the extra point was blocked once again by the Mustang defenders, leaving them on the short end of 20-6 score.

The second quarter’s final touchdown came when Sweat connected with his tight end Jacob Goetsch for an 11-yard touchdown.

The run for two points failed and Fayetteville Christian entered the locker room with a 26-6 lead.

On North Moore’s first offensive possession of the second half, they once again went on the move, getting into position for a first-and-goal. But the Mustangs couldn’t punch it in, turning the ball over on downs.

Fayetteville Christian final touchdown came in the third quarter on a one-yard run by Smalls. Goetsch caught a pass from Sweat for the 2-point conversion, putting them on top 34-6.

The Mustangs try to get on the winning track Friday when they travel to Red Springs in their final tune-up before starting Yadkin Valley Conference action against West Montgomery on Sept. 14.

The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m.