North Callaway scored a touchdown on every drive on Friday but needed its defense to catch up.

It did in the 62-20 win over Versailles in a Class 2 District 5 tournament game in Kingdom City. The Thunderbirds (8-2) ran for 408 yards, including 211 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries by Jaiden Galbreath, and shut out Versailles (6-4) in the second half after leading 28-20 at halftime.

Head coach Kevin O’Neal said the first half might have been North Callaway’s worst defensive half this season, but the second half was definitely the best defensive half of the season. Versailles scored a touchdown on three of four first-half drives but then three of its four second-half drives were each only four plays.

“In the first half, they were pretty physical up front on the offensive line,” O’Neal said. “We were missing tackles and didn’t have our eyes up. Some guys came out of their assignment trying to help out other guys, so it started snowballing a little bit. At halftime, our defensive coaches did a good job of talking about what their assignment was and making sure you do your assignment. Win your job, and the defense will work.”

Coltyn O’Neal led the defense with 12 tackles, Collin Moore followed with nine tackles, and Galbreath and Tyler Speight each had seven tackles. Colton Moore had five tackles and three pass defenses.

Versailles was coming off a winless season and then won the Ozarks Highland Conference for the first time in 24 years, going from allowing 55 points per game to about 19 points per game going into Friday. Kevin O’Neal said they do a good job with their schemes, but they couldn’t stop North Callaway from scoring at least 50 points for the eighth straight week.

Coltyn O'Neal threw for 91 yards and two touchdowns on 6-for-8 passing but had a bigger night on the ground with 173 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 10 carries. Collin Moore ran for 116 yards and one touchdown on six carries.

“It was pretty evident that they were going to do what they could to take away the big plays in our passing game,” Kevin O’Neal said. “It opened up some of our running game. That’s why this offense is doing such a good job this year. There’s a lot of different things we can do offensively.”

The No. 3 seed North Callaway will have another home at 7 p.m. Friday after No. 7 seed California (3-7) upset No. 2 seed Father Tolton (5-5) 18-13 last week. O’Neal said North Callaway has film on California, including from its 33-6 win early this season at Montgomery County (6-4).

“They have a really good quarterback that’s going to present some challenges to us,” O’Neal said. “(Koleman Friedrickson) runs the ball well and throws the ball well. He is a transfer from Smith-Cotton, and I think he had a really good last year with Smith-Cotton.”