Niceville, FL — For Grant Thompson, humbling rivals never gets old. Watching Addie Moore validate a quarterback process that produces Division-I signal callers and Players of the Year never gets old. Watching Austin Firestone, Ryan Driscoll, Joe Hanson and Eric Trapp dominate in the trenches never gets old. Watching a defense score weekly never gets old. Watching a next-man-up mentality that last week celebrated Harrison Orr's four forced turnovers at strong safety and this week produced a breakout performance in inside linebacker Jeremy Moore (two claps!) never gets old. Winning, most importantly, never gets old for the Flyin' N. Friday's 39-0 victory over Choctaw (1-1) — Niceville's third straight shutout in a rivalry that includes a 136-0 scoring margin since 2019 — stretched the Eagles' regular-season win streak to 19 and also confirmed the obvious: Thompson's crew is once again the area team to beat. "Football is football. Everyone we play is going to be a rival to us," junior tailback Micah Turner said. "That's just how it is. We're not going to back down from nobody. We're not going to take no one lightly. That's just how it's going to be." Defensively, Niceville (2-0) was near perfect in finding the end zone for the second straight week and limiting Choctaw to just 10 first downs and well under 100 yards rushing in the shutout. The Eagles delivered four sacks on the night and never let Choctaw quarterback Jesse Winslette get comfortable in the pocket, the 6-foot-5 sophomore held to a 14-for-23 passing effort for 125 yards after lighting up Pace to the tune of an 80% completion and two scores. Choctaw only sniffed the red zone once and, with running back Cole Tabb exiting late in the first half after a collision, had no semblance of a run game with just 81 yards in losing its 10th straight game to Niceville. "I'm proud of the whole team," Thompson said. "I'm proud of coach Martin and his staff. What a great job in getting these guys ready. They do a great job game-planning and we came out and played hard." "Defense scored two weeks in a row and that's big time." In fact, the first-string defense has now scored more touchdowns than it's allowed: That'd be 2-to-1. Defensive Player of the Game: Khalil Jacobs Knotted at zero after both teams' first drive ended in a punt, Jacobs capitalized on a Choctaw miscue to deliver what'd be the game-winning score. A high snap sailed over the punter's head and into the end zone. Jacobs, on top of the play, blocked the late punt attempt and fell immediately on the ball. Ball game. "My job was to make sure it wasn't faked or anything, so I went up the field and I saw the ball go over the punter's head," Jacobs said. "Coach Moorer told me at practice if the ball goes over the punter's head, 'free touchdown.' "So obviously I know what he's talking about. I went and got it and I scored." "They stopped us on that first drive, had the ball and that was a very good time to score a touchdown," added Thompson. Offensive Player of the Game: Micah Turner The Dandy Dozen playmaker called his three-carry, 12-yard effort against Lincoln "the worst game of my life." Friday's 120-yard, two-touchdown effort affirmed last week was a fluke and quelled any doubts about his abilities behind a dominant O-line. "Coach Adron and I coach the backs and if you know coach Adron at all, he's going to take (last week) personally," Thompson said. "We had a great week of practice, great focus." Following Azareyeh Thomas' second score of the early season on an 18-yard touchdown in the second quarter, Turner busted a 52-yard touchdown up the right side to lift the Eagles to a 19-0 lead. "I didn't get touched by the linebackers and then Cooper, he had the block down there and I just followed his butt and started running," Turner said. Expanding on that was quarterback Moore, who followed with a 36-yard touchdown run to give the Eagles a 27-0 halftime lead and highlight his 107 yards on the ground. "Micah looked awesome, awesome," he said. "He came in there and ran the ball super hard. Head down, got yards and broke one down here and showed us some real speed." Niceville's backfield added a Deangelo Shorts 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and, for good measure, a 21-yard touchdown rushing score from Turner to start the running clock and lift the starters with more than 14 minutes to play. On the night the backfield had 349 yards, five touchdowns and averaged more than 11 yards per touch. "We going to to be dangerous, just know that," Turner said. "We still have a lot more potential and we haven't showed half that." Quotable On his big men in the trenches, Thompson said: "Coach Hedges and coach Daniels and their unit do an incredible job. We knew that was going to be a strength and they're playing up to our expectations." "Go Eagles."