Needles intercepts five passes, tops The Meadows

Needles hauled in five interceptions and shut down The Meadows' offense in the second half earning a 31-14 road win.

The Meadows went to their backup quarterback Gabe Adamson with Jack Berkley sidelined with a finger injury. Needles picked off his first pass, and Jayden Yeager found Trenton Poe-Evans for a 9-yard touchdown three plays later.

Adamson hit his next four targets, but went 3-for-11 with two more picks before being taken out early in the third quarter with a shoulder injury.

Max Hisatake took over the rest of the way but the Needles defense held him to 0-for-7 with two interceptions. Poe-Evans had two interceptions for Needles (6-0, 5-0 Division III Southern)

The Meadows rushed for 90 yards in the first half, including a 1-yard touchdown run by Gabe Adamson and an 18-yard scoring run by Adam Martinez, which gave The Meadows a 14-7 lead midway through the second quarter.

But Needles held The Meadows (3-4, 2-3) to 19 yards and 13 plays total in the second half.

Gavin Pletcher had touchdown runs of 5, 3 and 2 yards for Needles, and Derek Wagstaff ran for 130 yards on 20 carries.