The Silver Knights of Tyler Consolidated celebrated their last home game of the 2010 season with a win over the Clay County Panthers, 36-22. The win was the second of the year, and second in a row for the Silver who will end their season at Weir this Friday.

“We played well,” said head coach of the Knights, Rob Caldwell. “Two games you always want to win are your homecoming game and your last home game for your seniors, and we did that. The kids played hard, and that’s what we like to see.”

With 9:11 to go in the first half, Knight senior Isaac Graham scored the first touchdown of the night on a 34 yard run followed a Blaise Rice extra-point kick to give the Consolidated team the lead. Four minutes later, the Panthers answered that score with one of their own, but missed the extra point attempt which had them trailing, 7-6.Graham again scored for the Silver with just over two minutes to play in the first on a six yard run, followed by a Rice kick to go up 14-6.

In the second quarter, Clay County added another six points with 9:23 to go including the extra point conversion, but the Knights were quick to answer with a 17 yard pass from Jordan Smith to Corey Lowe for six putting the score at 20-14 with just minutes to play.

On offense in the last ticking seconds of the first half, the Knights determinedly drove the ball 94 yards down the field.

“We had 4.2 seconds on the clock and we needed to score some points before the time ran out to put them at more of a disadvantage for the start of the second half,” Caldwell said. “The kids put together a most impressive drive to bring the ball down the field. They worked very hard to put us into scoring position and we had to take the chance, to keep the momentum.”

Senior Blaise Rice stepped up and kicked a field goal from 27 yards out for three points to add to the home team side of the score board, putting them now in the lead, 23-14, going into the half.

Graham scored again for Consolidated in the third quarter, on one yard run into the end zone, with 2:09 remaining on the clock.

Then in the fourth, the Smith to Lowe connection was made good on a 23 yards pass for six points, followed by the extra point.

Clay would add another score with 28 seconds remaining, but it was too-little-too-late, and the Knights pocketed their second win, 36-22.

“It was a great overall effort by our kids,” said the coach. “The defense did well, our receivers positioned themselves well, everybody, everybody did a good job and I’m proud of them all.”

The Knights had 17 first downs to the Panthers 16 in the game. Tyler Consolidated rushed for 237 yards and passed for 207 for a total of 444 yards. Clay County rushed for 323 yards, and passed for 44 for a total of 367 yards on the day. The home team was penalized six times, costing them 41 yards, while the visitors collected eight penalties for 75 yards.

Quarterback Jordan Smith connected on 11 of 16 passes for 207 yards, and two touchdowns. He was intercepted once.

Lowe was the leading receiver of the day with six catches for 112 yards. Boone Kehrer caught two passes for 48 yards; Zack Knowlton had two catches for 35 yards; and Evan Cline caught a 12 yarder.

Graham was the leading rusher with 160 yards on 21 carries. Smith had four carries for 47 yards; Cline, five rushes for 21 yards; and Alex Doak ran the ball twice for nine yards.

Senior Blaise Rice made good on three of five extra-point kicks and centered the uprights on the only field goal attempt.

Defensively, Lowe was credited with 11 tackles and one assist; Cline had 11 tackles, one assist and two solos; Graham had nine tackles, one assist and one solo; Kehrer, eight tackles, four assists and two solos; John Kocher, six tackles, one assist and covered a fumble; Hunter LeMasters, four tackles, four assists, one solo and one interception; Slade Dillon, four tackles, five assists; Koty Martin, three tackles; Alex Doak one tackle, two assists, one solo and covered a fumble; Cody Bungard, one tackle; Zack Knowlton, one tackle, two assists; and Drew Casey, one tackle, one assist.

On Friday the Silver Knights will travel to Weir to take on the 1-8 Red Riders for their last game of the season. “They’re a very athletic ball team and have got some good size up front,” Caldwell said. “They play a heck of a schedule, so we can’t take their record lightly. We’re still going to have our work cut out for us. This should be a good game.”