ORDFORDVILLE — The Benton/Scales Mound/Shullsburg Knights came out a’ charging on April 23 and rolled to their second victory of the season.
The Knights co-op scored on their first seven possessions to rout host Parkview-Albany 55-20 in a COVID Spring Conference cross-over prep football game held at PHS in Ordfordville.
The Knights (2-3 overall) got things rolling by returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and then showed dominance on both sides of the ball en route to a 48-0 lead.
On offense, the Knights started seven of their eight first-half possession in Vikings’ territory and had to march no more than 53 yards and needed no more than six plays to cover those yards as they scored on their first six drives of the game.
On defense, the Knights forced seven first-half turnovers — three fumbles, two interceptions and two turnovers on downs in Vikings’ territory — to set the offense up in good shape time and time again.
“It was a great start. The boys were mentally prepared and they executed really well in the first half. We were more physical and it showed on both sides of the ball,” said Knights’ head coach Todd Bastian.
Senior Brandon Hoppman took the opening kick back 75 yards for a score behind some stellar blocking by his teammates, and then tacked on TD runs of 10, 4 and 4 yards to hit pay dirt four times in the half.
Hoppman added a pair of 2-points conversion runs and also had an interception and a fumble recovery on defense to punctuate his spectacular first half.
Senior Ben Beau chipped in with a 23-yard TD run in the first quarter and an 81-yard kickoff return TD in the third quarter for the Knights, while senior Jake Fawcett had a 12-yard TD run and senior Michael Turpin hauled in a 20-yard TD pass from sophomore quarterback Jacob Duerr in the second quarter to aid the rout.
The lone highlight of the first half for the Vikings (2-3) was a 75-yard kickoff return score by senior Justyce Crecelius just before the intermission.
After being held to just 59 total yards in the first half, the Vikings’ offense picked up the pace in the second half rushing for 131 yards with senior Jericko Schwartzlow ripping off TD runs of 57 and 30 yards to close the night on a positive note for the hosts.
The Knights ran 36 times for 210 yards and added another 20 yards on one completion for 230 yards of offense on the night. Beau ran it six times for 72 yards and a score, Hoppman finished with 64 yards on nine carries with three TDs and Fawcett added 29 yards and a TD on three totes to pace the ground attack.
Duerr completed his only pass attempt for a 20-yard TD to Turpin.
Dominick Cummins had an interception, while Luke Jansen, Ben Werner and Turpin recovered fumbles for the Knights.
Schwartzlow ran 10 times for 122 yards and two scores to lead the Vikings, who finished the night with 190 rushing yards and 11 passing yards as a team.
The Knights will wrap up the spring season facing the Southwestern Wildcats (1-4) at L.B. Carns Field in Hazel Green on April 30.
“We will have to have our passing defense ready to go. We know they like to throw it a lot. We will have to put some pressure on the QB and not let him get too comfortable. They have some good athletes that we will have to try and contain,” Bastian said.
