McKenzie School continued to light up the scoreboard Friday night.

The Tigers topped the 50-point mark en route to a 54-24 victory over Class 1A, Region 2 rival Kinston High School.

But Friday night’s attack may have looked a little unusual to McKenzie fans who are used to seeing an aerial assault. McKenzie kept the ball on the ground, throwing just six times.

“It’s a little different, but we take what the defense is giving us,” McKenzie head coach Josh McLendon said.

Against the Bulldogs, that meant giving the ball to senior Ty Adams. Adams rushed for four scores to lead the Tigers.

“He really ran hard,” McLendon said.

The 54 points scored marks a season-high for McKenzie, which has scored at least 42 points in each of its first three games of the season. The Tigers are averaging 44 points per game this season.

But McKenzie’s defense has been pretty good in its own right.

Before giving up a season-high 24 points Friday night, the Tigers had held their opponents to just 11.5 points per game.

They Tigers defense, which allowed 24 first-half points, didn’t allow a single point in the second half.

“We challenged them at halftime and they responded,” McLendon said. “We weren’t really doing anything wrong fundamentally, but we were giving up the big play. We made some changes at halftime, and we were able to eliminate the big plays.”

The 10th-ranked Tigers will now turn their attention to in-county rival Georgiana. The Tigers and the Panthers will face off next Friday in McKenzie.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.