Tyler Consolidated headed to Ritchie County on Friday to take on the Rebels in what would turn out to be a mud bath for both teams. The Silver Knights took care of the football in this game and held the home team to only one touchdown in the 32-6 win.

“We knew if it rained that field would be in bad shape,” said head coach of the Knights Rob Caldwell. “And we were right. It was a muddy mess.”

Knight senior Nate Taylor put Consolidated on the scoreboard first in the game in the first two minutes with a nice 74 yard run down the field. The two point conversion that followed was deemed no good, but the Knights held the lead by a slim margin of six.

Ritchie County answered that score with one of their own with 4:48 to play in the first. Rebel Brian Tingler ran in eight yards for a home town score, knotting the score at six all.

Before the first quarter ended, Knight running back Taylor worked his magic in the mud yet again, charging 36 yards for a TD. Spencer Kinnard’s kick failed to click, but the Silver and Black still held the lead, 12-6.

In the second stanza, with 4:11 to go, Taylor ran 12 yards down the field for his third touchdown of the game. Blaise Rice’s kick was no good. But the Knights were not finished scoring in the half yet. Quarterback Jordan Smith passed a 33 yarder to Corey Lowe in the end zone with 39 seconds to play. Kinnard’s kick was good, putting the score at the half, 25-6, with the Knights in the lead.

Consolidated would add one more score in the game with 2:17 left to play in the third quarter. Smith scored on a quarterback keeper from one yard out. Rice’s kick capped off the scoring with the Knights taking their third win of the season, 32-6.

“Our defense did real well,” said the coach. “We let them score there in the first quarter, but then, we settled in and shut them down.”

“Nate ran really well, despite the mud, Jordan threw well and our receivers did a good job holding on to the football.”

The Knights gained 376 rushing yards on 44 carries in the contest and had 93 yards passing for a total of 469 positive yards. Ritchie County rushed 32 times for 103 yards and passed for 99 for a total of 202 yards in the game.

Tyler Consolidated was penalized nine times for 70 yards and fumbled the ball four times, losing one. The Rebels had five penalty flags thrown on them costing them 37 yards and recovered the only fumbled they had in the game.

Taylor rushed 22 times against the Rebels for 262 yards, putting his season total thus far at 1,339 yards on 156 carries. Junior Isaac Graham ran the ball nine times in the Ritchie County game to gain 64 yards; Dalton Parsons had four carries for 27 yards; John Kocher had three rushes for 12 yards; and Kyle Jones carried twice for six yards.

Receivers for the Knights include Boone Kehrer who had two catches for 31 yards. Brody Northcraft caught two passes for 16 yards; Corey Lowe had one catch for 33 yards (TD); and Graham had one catch for 13 yards.

Knight quarterback Smith completed six of eight passes for 93 yards.

Defensively, several Knights saw action in this game. Evan Cline led the defensive numbers with seven tackles. Boone Kehrer had five tackles, one assist, two solos, and caused a fumble; James Jones was in on five tackles, four assists, and he sacked the Ritchie County quarterback once; Erik Hartley had three tackles; Nate Taylor, three tackles and one interception; Corey Lowe, three tackles and three assists; Brandon Grimes, three tackles; Cody Barker, three tackles and three assists; Brody Northcraft, three tackles and two assists; Ethan Arbogast, two tackles and one assist; Isaac Graham was credited with one tackle; Kyle Jones had one tackle, one assist and one solo tackle; Cody Grant had one tackle, three solos and sacked the quarterback once; J.D. Pratt and Drew Casey were also each credited with a tackle against the Rebels.

The Silver Knights will play at Clay County Panthers next week at Clay County.