When the Blue Devils of St. Marys entered Tyler County on Friday night, they meant businesses. They finished their scheduled appointment with a win over the Silver Knights, 64-20, in a hard fought battle for dominance early on.

With 9:55 to play in the first, Knight junior, Alex Doak hauled in a pass from quarter back Hunter LeMasters to put the first score of the evening on the scoreboard for the Silver Knights. The team lined up for the extra point kick, decided to run the ball instead and reached pay dirt, only to have the two points revoked due to an inadvertent whistle.

On the second try, Drew Casey put the ball through the uprights to give the home team the lead, 7-0.

St. Marys found their footing, and soon answered that score with one of their own, tacking on the two point run to go ahead in the game 8-0.

“We put together a good drive and found the end zone in the beginning of the game,” said Rob Caldwell, head coach of the Silver Knights. “The whistle took a little wind out of our sails, but we were on our game and doing well. But you just can’t have five turnovers and expect to win ball games.”

The Devils added eight quick points in the middle of the second quarter, which the Knights answered with a Hunter LeMasters 58 yard pass to Doak for six.

The next four scores belonged to St. Marys, putting the Silver and Black at a definite disadvantage in the game, and scrambling to play catch-up. The home team would score only once more in the game, in the third quarter as LeMasters found Doak again on a 45 yard pass followed by a Casey extra point kick.

St. Marys capped off all scoring in the game late in the fourth quarter to take the 64-20 win.

“They were a good football team, big up front and we just couldn’t stop the run,” Caldwell said. “We were blitzing their linebackers, trying to stop the run, doing everything we could think of, but so did they. Our kids were very upset, we thought we had a good shot to take this one. But we have to play ball for 48 complete minutes, not in spurts and not just a few minutes every quarter.”

Hunter LeMasters completed five of 15 passes, and was intercepted twice for 169 yards.

Alex Doak made the highlight reels with four pass receptions for 155 yards and three touchdowns in the game. Josh Ruble caught one pass for 14 yards.

In the rushing department, Skyler Leasure led the team with 30 yards on seven carries; Jordan Baker carried the ball three times for 28 yards; Ruble rushed six times for 22 yards; Hunter LeMasters ran four times for 14 yards; Swen Scheidemantel, had three carries for 13 yards; Hogan Wells had one carry for four yards.

The Knights gained 109 yards on 25 rushes and 169 passing yards. St. Marys achieved 371 yards on 60 rushes and 126 passing yards. The Silver Knights lost three of three fumbles while the Devils lost one of one.

Defensively, Levi Henderson had his nose to the grindstone for the game with 13 solo tackles, four assists and one special team assist; LeMasters was credited with 11 solo tackles and four assists; Koty Martin, six solo tackles, four assists; Doak, four solo takcles, one assist; Scheidemantel, four solo tackles, six assists; Baker, three solo tackles, one assist, one special teams solo tackle and two special teams assists; Nick Anderson, two solo tackles, four assists; Casey, two solo tackles, two assists; Cole Kocher, one solo, two assists; Wells, one solo, one assist, one special teams assist; John Kocher, one solo; Ruble, one solo, three assists; Ryley Warner, one solo, three assists; Austin Thompson, one solo; Troy Watson, one assist, one solo; Devon Haris, two assists; Jay Earley, two assists; and Colby Lash, one assist.

The Silver Knights will travel to Grantsville, WV on Friday to take on the Calhoun County Red Devils.