The Parkview football gathered in a victory circle after the game and began to chant “LAR-RY, LAR-RY, LAR-RY.” It was their way of both congratulating and teasing junior linebacker Elijah Brown, who had one of the team’s two interceptions.

“His name’s not Larry, but they call him Larry and they’re all excited,” Parkview coach Eric Godfree explained afterwards. “That’s his second interception. It came at the right time, kept momentum rolling for us.”

The Parkview defense was stellar all night against an explosive Norcross team and went on to post a 28-0 win at The Big Orange Jungle.

“It’s great to get a shutout,” Brown said. “It means we’re playing great.”

Godfree said, “Our defense has played well all season. We put together four quarters tonight. We’ve had some halves where we’ve been so impressive and some quarters when we haven’t been so impressive. Tonight for four quarters our defense did a phenomenal job.”

It was the first shutout of the season for the No. 3-ranked Panthers (5-0). They had two a year ago.

The Panthers led 7-0 at halftime when Jordan Williams connected with Malik Washington for a 20-yard touchdown late in the first quarter.

The defense kept Norcross at bay and prevented the Blue Devils from scoring when Ronnie Hamrick made a nice interception near the end zone at the end of the half.

The Parkview offense finally got going in the third quarter and produced three scores.

“We’ve talked all week about how good Norcross is. They’re a good football team,” Godfree said. “I’ve got to admit, at halftime I was a little leery. We were having a hard time running the ball and got some penalties we don’t normally do. But (offensive coordinator Jeremy) Holder and our offensive guys made some great adjustments.”

The first score was set up when Brown picked off Louis Williams at the 35. Eight plays later the Panthers scored when Williams found C.J. Daniels for a 10-yard touchdown.

“The interception felt great,” Brown said. “I didn’t expect it. Our linebacker put pressure on the quarterback and the ball was right at me.”

After forcing a punt, Parkview scored again on a 1-run run by Washington, then capped it off with a 56-yard run by Cody Brown.

Williams completed 11 of 15 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns. Washington caught six passes for 107 yards and ran one time for a 3-yard touchdown. Brown rushed 13 times for 113 yards and one touchdown.

Norcross quarterback Williams completed 15 of 28 passes for 175 yards and rushed for 20 yards.

The Blue Devils (2-4) were riddled by penalties and were called for holding five times, three times on one drive.