Northview opened its 2010 campaign on a high note Friday night as they defeated the Graceville Tigers 24-6 on the road in Graceville.

The Chiefs (1-0, 0-0) were able to punish the Tigers (0-1, 0-0) with their offense as they were able to put up a total of 354 yards of offense with 281 of those yards coming on the ground.

Chiefs head coach Sid Wheatley said his offense found a rhythm Friday night against the Tigers.

“We had a pretty good game offensively,” Wheatley said. “We had great success moving the ball with our running game. I thought we controlled the ball well, but we do have to find a little more consistency.”

The offense was not the only thing clicking for the Chiefs as their special teams scored the first points of the game.

Chiefs kicker Lance Bushaw hit a 27-yard field goal to put the Chiefs on top 3-0.

The Tigers bounced back on their first drive moving the ball down the field scoring a touchdown, but missing their extra point to lead 6-0.

After the touchdown by the Tigers, Wheatley and his coaches made adjustments that helped their defense tighten up.

Wheatley said the defensive front really did a good job of stopping the Tigers running game after they scored.

“They gave up ground early when Graceville drove down and scored,” Wheatley said. “We made some adjustments though, and I thought our defense, especially the defensive front did a tremendous job.”

Northview would take the lead back late in the first quarter as Caleb Martin found pay dirt from two yards out to get the Chiefs back on top 10-6.

From that point on it was all Chiefs as Dustin Yuhasz scored on a 65-yard punt return in the second quarter to give Northivew a 17-6 lead, and in the fourth quarter Chiefs quarterback Brandon Sheets scrambled in from five yards out to give the Chiefs a 24-6 lead and the victory.

Next week, the Chiefs travel to South Walton High School in the first district game of the season.

Wheatley said the coaching staff will evaluate film to see what mistakes need to be corrected.

“The first thing we will do next week is look at film and find out where we need to fix ourselves,” Wheatley said. “After that we will begin looking at South Walton and figure out how to stop them.”

Northview and South Walton kick off next Friday at 7 p.m. at South Walton.