It wasn’t pretty, but Tim Jennings will take it.
River’s first year head coach got a win in his first home game at the helm, and to top it off it was against his alma mater. The Knights scored a fourth quarter TD to beat Parry McCluer, 6-0, in Springwood last Friday.
“A lot of the things we did right the week before, we didn’t do this time,” said Jennings. “We didn’t play very well at all, but at the end of the day we got a win and there’s no such thing as an ugly win.”
The Knights shot themselves in the foot for much of the night. After a first and goal at the Blues’ three, the Knights failed to score and they had two touchdowns called back for illegal blocks, both following interceptions by the Knights. On one of those plays, River’s Tanner Dillow, who had two picks, would have scored easily but a block in the back 10 yards behind the play negated the touchdown.
“We just can’t make mistakes like that,” said Jennings. “We had great field position all night but we couldn’t get it in the end zone.”
River finally broke through in the fourth quarter. On a third and 10 from the Parry McCluer 27, quarterback Aaron Bridges ran a bootleg play and found Kahlique White at the five. Bridges banged it home from the one and the River defense held on, recording the first shutout by the Knights since a 21-0 win over Parry McCluer in 2015.
The Knights finished with 231 yards of offense, with 177 rushing and 54 passing. Hunter Forbes led the rushers with 90 yards on 15 carries. Bridges was four for 12 passing.
On defense, Kevin Theimer had 16 tackles, including seven solos.
“Kevin shows up every game,” said Jennings.
The win was the second in a row for the Knights, and they’ll take a 2-1 record into this Friday’s home game with Covington.