Silver Knight fans had to be wondering if they were attending a track meet or a football game on Friday at South Harrison, as both the Knights and Hawks took turns running up and down the football field adding points to the scoreboard throughout the 48 minutes of play. Tyler Consolidated edged out the Hawks for the 49-42 win with 1.01 seconds to go on the scoreboard to secure their second win of the season.

“This was the most exciting game we’ve been involved in all year,” said Knight head coach, Rob Caldwell. “I’m telling you, those last few seconds, I didn’t know what to do. There we were tied at 42, we have the ball in our possession with 39 seconds to go, ran a play or two to get down field, and we call a pass play. We figured if we couldn’t get in on the next try or so, we’d go for the field goal.”

“Hunter LeMasters starts the play, looks for a receiver, sees a hole and decides to run with it.”

“We have one time out left so I’m running on the sidelines trying to watch his feet to see if he’s going to stay in bounds or get tackled so I can yell at the referee for the time out right away. He twists and turns, goes right and left, and finally got across the goal line.”

“That kid played with a lot of heart. He wasn’t about to be denied.”

But then, said the coach, his entire team played determined football against the Hawks. “They kept hold of the football throughout most of the game,” he said. “They ate up the time on the clock when they had possession, when we had the ball, we just hurried up and scored and that was that. They were a good team and we had trouble stopping them most of the night, but we made some good plays and got to come out on top in this one.”

Offensive statistics for the Knights in the game include quarterback Hunter LeMasters completing 12 of 20 passes for 298 yards in the game, including four touchdowns.

LeMasters rushed for 34 yards on two carries, including one touchdown; Alex Doak gained 72 yards on four rushes and one TD; Josh Ruble, four carries for 18 yards; Skylar Leasure, seven rushes for 18 yards; Levi Henderson scored on a two point conversion.

Doak led all receivers for the team, catching seven passes for 241 yards, including four touchdown catches; Koty Martin caught two passes for 23 yards and returned a kick-off for 82 yards and a touchdown; Swen Scheidemantel had one catch for 23 yards;

Defensively, LeMasters was credited with eight solo tackles and six assists; Doak had six solo tackles and two assists; Cole Kocher, four solo tackles, four assists and a fumble recovery; Jay Early, two solo tackles, two assists and caused a fumble; Josh Ruble, three solo tackles, two assists; Scheidemantel, four solo tackles, two assists; Chris Ice, six solos, four assists; and Levi Henderson had five solo tackles and two assists.

Kicker, Drew Casey, was 5-6 for the night on extra point kicks.

“I’m very proud of the way we played together in this game,” Caldwell said. “I was happy for the seniors to get another win on their record.”

On Friday, the Silver Knights will strive to extend their winning streak as they host Ritchie County for the Homecoming game.