Lions caged, shut out for Knights’ homecoming
ROSBORO — From the opening kickoff, Bismarck was out of its element, and Centerpoint took advantage on homecoming to roll to a 36-0 victory Friday at Diamond Bank Stadium.
“As soon as the rain started, we knew we would be out of our element,” said Bismarck head coach Daniel Keithley. “We like to pass the ball. We’ve had success throughout the season. My quarterback went down early. He was struggling throwing the ball anyway with the wet and the rain.
“Of course, when you start the game off with a fumble on the opening kickoff, that’s never a good way to start. We got behind, and our guys just kind of let it happen. We found ourselves in a bad situation, and we never got out of it.”
Bismarck junior Collier Robertson caught the opening kickoff, carrying it 18 yards to the 28, but the ball came loose as he was tackled. Centerpoint sophomore Kaden Horn landed on the ball to give the Knights (5-3, 3-2 3A-5) a short field with just five seconds off the clock.
It took the Knights just six plays to travel the 29 yards to the end zone with Blake Crawford carrying the ball in from the four-yard line for the score with 8:30 left in the period. Louis Lozano’s kick was no good as a flag hit the ground, but the penalty was waved off to leave the score at 6-0.
“We kick off to them; they fumble the
kickoff, and we go in and score just a few plays later,” Centerpoint head coach Cary Rogers said. “It just kind of set the tone for the whole game.”
The Knights went on to score on each of their possessions in the first half, save the last as the team knelt on the ball with 10 seconds remaining.
With the rains starting long before kickoff, homecoming activities were held in the gymnasium, but the homecoming royalty sat on the sidelines to celebrate with the team.
“It’s what you hope for on Homecoming,” Rogers said. “We came out from the very start and played hard and well. It just started cooking from the start. You never know if they’re going to be distracted or not, but Homecoming didn’t seem to bother us tonight, and I thought that they responded well from the opening kickoff.”
The rains caused both teams to struggle with ball control, but Bismarck (1-7, 0-5) suffered the brunt of the setbacks with seven fumbles and three turnovers to Centerpoint’s one turnover on three fumbles.
“We don’t do well, even though we practice all year in the wet and the rain; we just don’t do well,” Keithley said. “I don’t know what it is. Holding onto the ball, it’s always been our Achilles heel. Sure enough, we had another wet one tonight, and it caught us.”
Despite the weather, Centerpoint quarterback Owen Bright was 6-for-9 passing for 101 yards and two touchdowns, including a 51-yard pass to Daniel Forsythe for the team’s second score of the night, but it was the defense that was the star of the show, holding Bismarck to just seven yards of total offense.
“Owen did (have a good game),” Rogers said. “He threw the ball well. The receivers were open. The line did a good job with protection.
“As well as we played on offense, I thought we played even better on defense. I’m going to have to look at the stat sheets, but it may have been some record-setting defense for us. I don’t know. It was very good.”
The Knights will host Horatio (3-5, 2-3) this week at Diamond Bank Stadium. Bismarck will travel to Smackover (7-1, 5-0), which leads the conference along with Camden Harmony Grove (7-1, 5-0).