The Oak Glen Golden Bears visited in Tyler County on Friday night and got quite the scare as the Silver Knight football team turned out not to be the pushovers they thought. Though the Bears wound up on the winning side of the 44-20 score, they knew they were in a battle when they left town.

“Oak Glen is a good team but I think we gave them a game,” said Knight head coach Rob Caldwell. “The boys finally came together and played like a team. They’ve finally come to realize that though we are 11 separate individuals, we are all small parts of one team on the field. We made some good decisions and put into action what we’ve been working on all year.”

The Bears were the first to score in the game with 8:45 to go in the first quarter, but that score was answered soon enough by the home team when with 2:53 to go in the first, senior Isaac Graham scored for the Knights on an eight yard run for six points. The PAT failed but the Knights tied up the game at six-all.

In the second quarter, Consolidated took the lead in a game for the first time this season, scoring on a Jordan Smith 85 yard pass to Alex Doak with 9:46 left to play. Smith connected with Boone Kehrer for the extra point conversion, putting the Knights in the lead, 14-6.

Before the first half ended however, the Golden Bears went on top again with a TD and the extra point conversion, tying the score at the half 14-14.

The Bears opened up the second half with six quick points to take the lead, which was answered by the Silver minutes later with a 23 yard Smith pass to Graham, followed by the extra point kick of Blaise Rice.

Unfortunately, the Knights were unable to capitalize on Oak Glen mistakes or good field position for the rest of the game, and wound up with the 44-20 loss.

“We had some breakdowns in the second half, but we were giving what we had,” Caldwell said. “The kids are finally putting it together and it was good to see them taking responsibility.”

The Knights achieved 11 first downs in the game to Oak Glen’s 12. Consolidated rushed for 57 yards and passed for 249 for a total of 306 yards. The Golden Bears rushed for 369 yards and passed for 18 for a total of 387 yards and were penalized six times in the game costing them 50 yards. The Knights played penalty free, having not one single flag thrown on them during the game.

Knight quarterback, Jordan Smith, completed 13 of 30 passes, and was intercepted once.

Doak gained the most yards as a receiver for the Silver with two catches for 97 yards. Graham caught three passes for 66 yards, including one TD; Zack Knowlton had four catches for 62 yards; Corey Lowe caught three passes for 20 yards; and Evan Cline caught one pass for four yards.

Graham was the leading Knight rusher for the evening with 18 carries for 52 yards. Cline gained five yards on one run.

Defensively, Boone Kehrer led the home team with 11 tackles, three assists, one quarterback sack and covered a fumble. Graham had 10 tackles and three assists; John Kocher was credited with eight tackles; Lowe recorded five tackles and two assists; Cline, five tackles and five assists; Slade Dillon, four tackles, two assists.

Hunter LeMasters was credited with three tackles, one assist; Doak, three tackles; Koty Martin, two tackles, one assist; and Drew Casey, two tackles, two assists.

The Silver Knights will travel to Braxton County on Friday.