Football: Varsity Knights tame Chargers

by Cory Butzin

You can’t teach size or speed.

And Flint Southwestern Academy had plenty of both.

The Knights moved the ball with ease, utilizing tall receivers and a bruising tailback to tire out the Midland Dow defense as Southwestern jumped out to an early lead and held on for a 28-14 win over the Chargers Thursday at Midland Community Stadium.

“You’ve got at least three receivers there (Southwestern) that are Division I football players,” said Dow coach Kurt Faust. “Our kids were in position, they just couldn’t make plays.”

That was evident early as the Knights offense gained a lot of yards in a hurry. Quarterback Cameron Stover connected with split end Brandon Thompson on a 41-yard reception to move Southwestern into scoring position. Three consecutive penalties on the Knights moved them out of the red zone, but that didn’t matter as Stover connected with Kortez Ross from 27 yards out to put Southwestern on the board. Dwayne Lewis pounded his way in on the conversion attempt to make it 8-0.

Bennie Manns got involved in the action five minutes later when he scampered in for a 10-yard touchdown. Manns then converted the two-point attempt to make it 16-0 Knights.

The Chargers seemed to get into the swing of things, offensively, early in the second when William Cynecki charged in from 12 yards out to put Dow on the board. Jacob Moody’s extra point made it 16-7.

The Knights responded later in the quarter when Manns took the handoff and raced around the Dow defense and cut back at the sideline to scamper in for a 22-yard score to make it 22-7 following an unsuccessful conversion attempt.

Southwestern added another score mid-way through the third. After Stover connected on a 55-yard strike to Thompson, Lewis pounded it in from nine yards out to push the Knights’ lead to 28-7.

Dow responded less than a minute later, or so it seemed.

On the ensuing possession, Kyle Partlo took the handoff for the Chargers on an option keeper and broke through the Southwestern defense, raced through the secondary and down the sideline for a 62-yard touchdown run. But a penalty negated the score and brought the ball back to midfield. Dow continued to drive towards the end zone, but an interception in the end zone killed the scoring opportunity.

“Mistakes came in key moments and they really killed things,” Faust said. “It seemed like every time we seemed to gain some momentum, we’d shoot ourselves in the foot. You just can’t do that with so many athletes out on the field.”

Jonathan Russell added a score from three yards out for the Chargers late in the game, but it was not enough.

Dow (0-1) returns to action Friday, September 5 when they travel to Bay City Western to take on the Warriors. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Photos by Cory Butzin & Jason Wolverton