The Oakland-Craig Football team won 27-24 in overtime at Battle Creek Friday night.
The Knights jumped out to a 6-0 first quarter lead and led 21-0 at halftime only to see the Braves rally in the fourth quarter and send the game into overtime.
Oakland-Craig held Battle Creek to a field goal on their overtime possession though, and then Quarterback Evan Reinert scored to give the Knights the win.
Head Coach Joe Anderson says his squad simply gutted one out. "After things really fell apart the last 8 minutes it did not look good going into OT. BUT Our kids did a really good job of refocusing on our assignments and really played well in OT and just found a way to win."
Reinert was 12-24 passing for 206 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He added 140 yards rushing on 20 carries, and scored three touchdowns.
Anderson says Reinert did a lot of good things in the game. "Evan played one of his best games. He did a good job of keeping his composure and he was a true dual threat. We were able to get him on the edge with a lot of run pass options. He made a lot of big plays for us through running and through the air."
Ben Smith added 72 yards rushing on 15 carries while Kobe Benne caught 5 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown.
Ian Lindquist and Wyatt Uhing had 7 tackles apiece to lead Oakland-Craig.
The Knights racked up 420 yards of total offense, 214 coming on the ground.
The defense gave up 352 yards of offense, including 192 through the air.
Anderson says the fast start allowed his team to pick up the big win. "It was a big win for our program. They were ranked #1 in most polls, so for our guys to come out and play the way they did really showed what we are capable of doing. We really executed well in the 1st half. We were able to shut down their run game and able to hit a couple big plays on offense to get a nice lead."
Things don't get any easier for Oakland-Craig this week as the Knights (2-0) host defending Class C-2 State Runner-up Crofton (2-0) Friday night.
The Warriors beat BRLD 29-8 at home this past Friday night.
The Knights downed Crofton 38-22 in Crofton last year.
Anderson discusses the keys to taking down the Warriors again this year. "We again will need to play very physical football. We will have to find a way to shut down their running game, as they have some good playmakers. Offensively we need to cleanup some of things that we struggled with last week and just play assignment sound football."
Crofton hasn't been all that impressive so far, in my opinion. Still a very good team, but their first two opponents are winless so far this season. Whereas Oakland-Craig took out Battle Creek and rolled Malcolm in shutting out the Clippers.
Still though you can bet the Warriors will be ready to go. Anderson says his program has a lot of respect for Crofton. "We enjoyed the win for one day, but Crofton has our total attention right now. They have a great program and have good football teams every year. They always have a bunch of tough physical kids that are well coached."
You can bet this will be an all out great battle between two very good squads. The Warriors are a perennial power, and will bring their "A" game without a doubt.
I fully expect this contest to be very physical and hard hitting.
I give the Knights the edge with the game being in Oakland, but the road team won last year's game so it wouldn't shock me if Crofton found a way to steal this one, especially since they were in the state title game a year ago.
This game represents the last two state runner-ups in Class C-2 so you can bet it will be a great game.
Oakland-Craig has to shut the door on the Warriors if they get up big like they did against Battle Creek though.
The Knights can't let Crofton creep and get back into the game or it could comeback to cost Oakland-Craig.
Reinert needs to have another big game, and Smith, Garrett Seagren, and Benne need to have marvelous games for the Knights as well.
As good as Oakland-Craig's win was Friday night, this week figures to be just as difficult so the Knights can't afford to be hungover from the Battle Creek win. Oakland-Craig should be solely focused on Crofton, and Crofton only right now.
In other words, the Knights can't BIRG, or Bask In Reflected Glory. Learned that term in Sport Management Class at Wayne State College by the way.
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