For North Forsyth, the formula was simple Friday night.

The Raiders mixed a couple of big plays from scrimmage, a tenacious defense that clamped down when it had to, and a whole lot of running it up the gut.

It worked like a charm, as North went into the Den and redeemed its season-opening loss from a year ago with a 37-0 win over backyard rival West Forsyth.

“We worked really hard. I’m proud of these kids, they deserve it,” North coach Jared Zito said.

“West Forsyth is a good football team and they’re well coached. They’re going to get better and better, but I’m just proud of our kids right now. I’m happy for them ... and they need to enjoy it until Monday.”

North (1-0) didn’t mix it up too much on offense, and didn’t need to. An almost exclusively ground-oriented attack just kept chewing up yardage and moving the chains down after down. Together, Steven Hester (140 rushing yards), Joey Vicary (107) and Tyler Slaton (51) carried the ball on nearly every snap.

“All along, we said our offense was going to be built off the three-headed spear and it starts up front with our offensive line, and really they did a wonderful job of picking up some of the stuff West was doing, but it’s always nice to have Steven, Tyler and Joey behind them,” Zito said.

The first head of the spear bit the Wolverines (0-1) immediately. Vicary held the ball on a keeper on the first play from scrimmage, hit a hole on the right side of the line and motored 80 yards for a touchdown, making it 6-0 almost as soon as the national anthem had gone quiet.

A missed point after kept it at six, but North kicker Cole Allison stretched it to 9-0 with a 23-yard field goal later in the first.

North’s second big play came in the second, following a possession where West penetrated down to the 13 but went for a fourth down pass attempt that fell incomplete to turn the ball over on downs.

On the first play of the next series, Hester squirted out of a mass of bodies and was on his way for an 87-yard score that would lead to a 16-0 halftime score.

West coach Frank Hepler had nothing but good things to say about North’s control along the line of scrimmage.

“We just got the old fashioned butt kicking,” Hepler said.

“I saw on film that they had a very good offensive line, and we’re young on the defense right now in spots, so we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to get stronger.”

It was a frustrating night for the Wolverine offense. When they weren’t being forced into three-and-outs (which happened twice), the drives that did seem to be leading somewhere collapsed at the worst times. West had two turnovers on downs inside the red zone, along with a missed 40-yard field goal.

Throw in two interceptions and two lost fumbles, and it was nothing doing for the home team. Tyler Lott (74 rushing yards) and Ben Emert (67) did what they could to help the Wolverines in the losing effort.

“It’s going to take some time [for us], and a good team like that can expose you, which they did, so all the credit and everything goes to North Forsyth and their staff and their kids. They did a great job,” Hepler said.

The score was still 16-0 deep into the fourth quarter, but the North defense set the table for three more scores.

Linebacker Brett Garner intercepted pass attempts on two consecutive series late in the fourth. He ran the first back for a touchdown, going about 60 yards on the play, and returned the second to the West 15.

That set up Hester for his second score of the night, a four-yarder. A two-point conversion that might have been the result of a bad snap made it 31-0 at that point.

West moved it down to the North 48 on the next possession, but Tyler Riddle gave the Raider faithful one more jolt, picking up a fumble behind the line of scrimmage and going in for a final score. North went for two again, but was unable to convert, leaving the tally at 37-0.

For North, the result couldn’t have been sweeter, after a 21-14 loss in Coal Mountain to start last season, in what was West’s first varsity game.

“I think more than anything is we respected our opponent a lot more this year. I think last year we went into the game a little bit cocky, so to speak,” Zito said.

“They’ve got a good football team. Ben Emert is a Divison I player and they’ve got good players around him.”

The game also marked the return of Trey Rood to the West roster, after spending part of the summer in Germany for cancer treatment.

Rood was the first player to break through the banner held by the West cheerleaders before the game, leading the Wolverines onto the field. He was not medically cleared to play, but Hepler said he would be at practice Monday and could see some action in the secondary before returning to Europe in a few weeks.

“That was inspirational, for him to be here tonight. That’s who I feel bad for, but the kids played as hard as they could and he understands,” Hepler said.

“He wishes he could be out there, I know, but we’ll just keep praying for him and just hope he gets healthy. That’s more important than any football game.”

West is on the road Friday against the Tigers in Adairsville, while North returns to Coal Mountain to play host to Johnson.