The Tyler Consolidated Silver Knights opened up the 2010 High School Football season at home at Knight Stadium on Friday, hosting the Williamstown Yellow Jackets. Above: the Knights are welcomed into the stadium by loyal fans and supporters. (Photos by J. Light)

Though they had several opportunities to score on Friday at home against the Williamstown Yellow Jackets, the Silver Knights of Tyler Consolidated just couldn’t get the ball across the goal line, taking the loss, 41-0, in their first outing of the season.

“Williamstown is a good football team, make no doubt about it,” said Knight head coach Rob Caldwell. “And we started off well, but little mistakes cost us big throughout the game.”

The Jackets scored seven points in the first quarter, and left the Silver in their wake as they chalked up 27 points in the second quarter to take the overwhelming lead in the game.

“We just imploded in the second quarter,” Caldwell said. “Everything went wrong. No team can get down like that and expect to bounce back easily.”

The Yellow Jackets had 22 first downs in the game compared to the Knights’ 10. Williamstown rushed 40 times for 298 yards and passed for 129 for a total of 427 yards. Tyler Consolidated rushed 40 times for 163 yards and had 69 passing yards for a total of 232 yards in the game.

The Knights fumbled the ball twice, but recovered both, while the Jackets lost two of four fumbles.

Williamstown was penalized four times, costing them 30 yards. Consolidated lost 20 yards on four penalties.

Knight quarterback, Jordan Smith, completed eight of 24 passes and was intercepted once.

Senior Isaac Graham was the leading rusher for the Silver with 29 carries for 145 yards. Smith carried the ball twice for three yards; Evan Cline rushed once for two yards; and Jacob Highley had three carries for 10 yards.

Zach Knowlton was the leading Knight receiver with four catches for 42 yards. Alex Doak had one catch for 19 yards, followed by Josh Buckner with one catch for six yards; and Cory Lowe with two receptions for two yards.

Individual defensive stats for the Silver Knights in the game include: Boone Kehrer with nine solo tackles, three assists, and one quarterback sack; Dirk Fletcher had seven solo tackles; Hunter LeMasters was credited with six solo tackles and four assists; Lowe had three tackles; Doak, Skyler Leasure, Josh Buckner, Highley, Graham, Dakota Allen, John Kocher, Cody Grant, and Slade Dillon each had two solo tackles in the game with Graham, and Kocher credited with an assist as well and Dillon with three assists. Cline had one solo tackle and three assists; Nathan Heintzman had one solo tackle; and Isaiah Cassenelli had a fumble recovery.

The Silver Knights will take their efforts on the road this week as they travel to Roane County for their regular Friday night fare. While this will be the second outing of the year for the Knights, this game will be Roane County’s first game of the year.

“Generally, a lot of changes are made and a lot of improvement can be seen in between the first and second games of the season,” Caldwell said. “Let’s hope this proves to be true, because if we don’t correct our mistakes now, it could be a very long season.”