Blackhawks Top Royals 7-6
By Michael Rupp
The Royals hosted their second game this season on Friday against the Hinton Blackhawks, and this week was a defensive battle. The Royals went into half with a 6 point lead after Sophomore Receiver Kyler Bork caught a 52 yard touchdown pass from Junior Quarterback KC Nicks. ¨They were pressing me on the right side, ¨ said Bork. ¨We started hand battling, I just made a spin move to get out of it, looked back, and KC put the ball right in my hands. ¨ Bork had 3 receptions on Friday night for a total of 83 yards. Bork added, ¨It was a really exciting moment for me to get my first ever varsity touchdown. ¨ The Royals missed the point after and the score was 6-0.
The visiting Blackhawks led by Junior Quarterback Glen Carlson were silenced by the Royals defense all night. The Blackhawks only points came from a low snap by the Royals late in the 3rd quarter. Senior Linebacker Jarrett Kirwan jumped on the ball for the Hawks and Carlson kicked the extra point to give the Hawks the lead 7-6.
The Royals were able to mount a couple of drives, but couldn’t convert in the red zone. Bork told us, ¨Slant routes were working well because their corners played deep most of the time, and their linebackers brought a hard pass rush, so the middle of the field was open. We just struggled with the blitz at times. ¨ The Royals offense was also slowed after Kam Steffen went down with a separated shoulder. Kam was on his way to a monster game, pulling in 4 receptions for 42 yards before his injury. Steffen is expected to miss the next two weeks at minimum. The Royals also lost Nicks late in the 3rd quarter. Nicks left the game after taking a hard hit to the head. The third year starter sat out practice on Monday and will monitor the situation day to day this week.
This loss brings the Royals down to 0-2 (0-1 Conference) on the season.
Stats MMCRU:
JR KC Nicks: 12/22 183 Yds 1TD
SO. K. Bork: 3 Rec 83 Yds 1TD
SR. K. Stevens: 2 Tkls 1 Int
Hinton:
JR. Glen Carlson: 10/23 134 Yds 0 TD
JR. Beau DeRocher: 7 Rec 82 Yds
SO. Garret Lindley 13 Car 23 Yd