Outside The County-Maconaquah

Results from Maconaquah for Friday, August 25th

Knox outlasts Maconaquah, 46-36

The Knox Redskins remained undefeated here Friday night after fighting off a gallant effort by the Maconaquah Braves in a high scoring affair, 46-36. It was the first-ever meeting between both schools.

   The 2-0 Redskins, ranked 15th in the latest IFCA poll, scored on a 23-yard pass play in the final 10 seconds of the first half in building a 30-14 lead at intermission.  The Braves, now 1-1, outscored Knox in the second half (22-16) before falling short.


    Knox used a time-consuming ground attack enroute to the win.  The Redskins had the ball nearly 30 of the 48 minutes and rushed for 456 yards on 51 carries.  


   After Knox took an 8-0 lead midway throught the first period, the Braves responded with a six-play, 69-yard scoring drive.  Senior Ty Galvan's 20-yard burst got the Braves rolling and a Braxton Birner to Fuddy Kile 16-yard TD pass at the 3:19 mark capped the quick two-minute drive to paydirt.


   After falling behind 16-6 early in the second quarter, AJ Kelly returned the ensuing kickoff 25 yards to his own 35.  Kelly returned six kickoffs during the game and now has 57 in his career, breaking the previous mark (54) set by Ian Shively in 2008.  After a clutch fourth-down diving catch by Kile kept the drive alive,  Birner tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to Kelly and then hit Kile on the conversion, cutting Knox's lead to 16-14.  Kile led the Braves with 150 yards on nine receptions and moved past Jerry Peters into seventh place on Mac's career-scoring list with 146 points.  He has scored at least one touchdown in each of his past 12 games.


   Knox took the second half kickoff and increased its lead to 38-14 at the 7:21 mark on a one-yard quarterback keeper.  The Braves then put together another quick (1:47) scoring drive, getting four first downs along the way before Birner hit DJ Elliott with a six-yard TD pass.


   The Redskins moved to midfield on their next possession before Aiden Williams' crushing blow forced a fumble that Kelly scooped up and darted 58 yards untouched to the endzone.  It was 38-28 after Birner found Kelly on the conversion pass.


   After Knox bumped its lead to 46-28 with 7:32 left in the game,  Mac got its final points at the 5:15 mark when Birner scored from a yard out.  Kelly added the two-point conversion on a nice reverse.


   Birner finished with 259 yards passing, hitting on 17 of 29  attempts.  The Redskins picked off two of his passes.  Besides Kile's game-high totals, Kelly had 58 yards and Kaleb Shelton caught one pass for 32 yards.  Shelton's reception pushed him over 1000 yards in his career and gives Mac a trio of 1000 yard receivers.  Kelly joined the elite group last year.  The sure-handed Kile now has 2002 yards.   


   Shelton (15), Kelly (14) and Brady Dausch (10) led Brave tacklers. Kelly, Elliott and Carsten Hollars were credited with fumble recoveries.


  Coach Tyler Campbell's troops will travel to Northfield on Friday to face the Norse in a key Three Rivers Conference matchup.


  The Knox triumph was the 390th win for coach Russ Radtke whose 46-year Hall of Fame career began as an assistant coach at Maconaquah in 1976.