Black Knights fall to 0-3 in home debut
Robbinsville – The Knights enjoyed their first lead since the first play of the season Friday, when Roman Jones carved through the defense and scored on a 19-yard run.
Twenty seconds later, Mountain Heritage responded; seven minutes thereafter, the Cougars took the lead – and never looked back.
Riding the wave of 279 rushing yards and four touchdowns from senior quarterback Brandon Quinn, Mountain Heritage defeated Robbinsville 28-13 at Big Oaks Stadium.
Quinn broke free on a 63-yard run 20 seconds after Jones found the end zone, but the Cougars were unable to convert for the lead. Caleb Roy ended Robbinsville’s next drive by picking off a pass and with 9:03 left in the second, Quinn picked up traction and scored from 32 yards out to give Mountain Heritage (3-0) the advantage. For good measure, he tacked on a conversion run to open a 14-7 Cougars lead.
Robbinsville (0-3) generated a reply over six minutes later, when Jones pushed his way across the goal line on a 5-yard carry with 2:45 left in the half. However, the Black Knights were unable to make the conversion stick and still trailed 14-13. Mountain Heritage burned through all three of its timeouts before the break, making sure to add a 5-yard Quinn touchdown and a Cason Jones conversion dash to the tally at intermission.
A scoreless third gave way to Quinn punching in his final salvo with 5:34 left to play. Tytan Teesateskie was able to drop Quinn for a pair of third-down sacks twice in the second half – the latter coming with an assist from John Dominguez – but Robbinsville was unable to capitalize on the momentum shifts. Mountain Heritage returned the favor by halting a pair of rally bids from the Knights, with Foster Calloway and Gabe Onchi stopping Robbinsville quarterback Bryce Adams for a loss. Onchi’s halt came on the Knights’ final drive of the evening.
All told, the Cougars outgained Robbinsville 344-101 on the ground.
For the first time since 1990, the Knights will suit up to face Copper Basin, Tenn., on the gridiron. The Friday the 13th meeting kicks off at 7:30 p.m., in a game that will be live-streamed on grahamstarsports.com.
The Knights have only faced Copper Basin (0-3) twice since 1960, prevailing in a pair of shutouts: 16-0 (1989) and 34-0 (1990).