“Our halftime speech was ‘let’s show what we can do, let’s put some points on the board,’” said McKay. “And that’s what the kids did.”
Second half touchdowns from Lee Bobo, LaMarcus Smith-Kelly and Alex Scearce put a dent in the East Lincoln lead, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Mustangs’ high-powered offense in a 56-20 Southern Piedmont Conference loss.
East Lincoln running back Bubba McDowell torched the Knights for 234 all-purpose yards and two scores while quarterback Garret Young added 232 yards and four touchdowns through the air.
“(McDowell) is a great running back,” McKay said. “Everything we saw on film, we tried to stop, and it didn’t work. We just couldn’t contain him.”
The Mustangs (5-4 overall, 3-2 SPC) took the lead midway through the first quarter with a 77-yard Young pass to Antwan McLean and continued to pile it on, reeling off 49 straight points before the Knights finally answered with less than two minutes remaining in the third.
Bobo scooped up a short punt on the bounce at the Mustang 45 and escaped traffic to reach the sideline and score, putting the Knights on the board, 49-7.
LNC (4-4, 1-4) found the end zone again in the fourth when Smith-Kelly punched in a 1-yard run on fourth-and-goal after a 46-yard Scearce reception put the Knights in position. Scearce reached the end zone himself with just four seconds remaining on a 35-yard pass from quarterback Michael Dorsainvil.
With injuries piling up for a Knights team with already low numbers, McKay pointed to strength in numbers as a major factor in the lopsided loss.
“It’s game eight. We have so many kids banged up,” he said. “You can see the difference in the numbers here.”
In addition to facing a larger team, the young Knights also found themselves against an experienced program that wins.
“That’s a heavy, senior-laden team, too,” McKay said. “We’re still a sophomore, junior-laden team. We’re only two years old (at the varsity level), and we knew coming in they would be one of two really tough teams we’d play this year.”
But playing such an experienced team wasn’t all bad news. McKay says the Mustangs provided a good indicator of where the Knights need to improve in order to challenge for the conference title down the road.
“Just looking at their performance, the way they gang tackle and what they do, we need to develop that,” he said. “I know we’re still young, but we can always build on those things.”
Junior wider receiver Scearce continued to put up big numbers against the Mustangs, catching seven passes for 134 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed three times, picking up 20 yards.
Of Scearce’s seven receptions, four went for over 15 yards with the longest being his fourth quarter 46-yard reception that set up the Knights’ second touchdown.
The Knights host Cherryville Friday.
