Another Friday night, another win for Blackman. The Blaze improved to 5-0 on the season with their 59-14 victory over Siegel at the Inferno.
It was the first home game of the season for Blackman, but the game followed a similar script. Defense makes stops, offense scores in bunches. That’s just how it happens with this team.
“I don’t know why, but it always starts with the defense,” said Head Coach Kit Hartfield after the game. “Once they get rolling and settled in the offense gets comfortable and feels like they can open it up more and spread the ball around.”
Coach Hartfield called the defense “The wild-bunch of the team.” On Friday night, that was certainly the case.
Blackman’s first touchdown came via an interception return for a touchdown by Jordan Brown, who also had an offensive touchdown for the Blaze. Linebackers Matthew Hall and Conner Murphy had integral tackles for loss that kept Siegel from making the game interesting early on.
The first half was uncharacteristic of what we’ve seen all season out of the Blaze. There were multiple penalties and overall sloppy play on offense. Blackman had two touchdowns called back for penalties and still led 24-14 at halftime.
“In the first half we didn’t come out and execute so hot,” said standout receiver Trey Knox, who had three touchdowns on the night. “We showed our will and our dominance in the second half,” he continued.
A similarly slow start is something Blackman simply must avoid against Oakland next week. Blackman and Oakland entered play this weekend ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. For Blackman, it will be the toughest test of the season.
“It’s not really something we want to continue to do,” Coach Hartsfield added.
He continued, “In tighter ball games versus better competition like we’ll face next week in Oakland, we have to eliminate the penalties and turnovers. You just can’t beat good teams that way.”
For the time being, however, Blackman has shown it is worthy of that No. 2 ranking.
“We showed we’re a top contender in this state and in this region,” said Knox. He continued, “We’ve got too many weapons on the field that we can never go cold.”
One of the top college football prospects in the state, Knox had a receiving touchdown and two rushing touchdowns.
Knox nearly had a passing touchdown to complete the trifecta, but his lone pass was intercepted in the end zone at the end of the first half.
“I was thinking about running it in, but I was like man, I’m going to listen to my coaches,” he recounted.
Next Friday night’s showdown at Oakland is set to kickoff at 7 p.m.