HOWARD — The East Knox Bulldogs rarely lose at home.
They’re 23-4 at Chet Looney Stadium since Cody Reese took over as head coach five years ago. They seem to feed off the energy of the crowd, which brings cowbells and noisemakers and uncommon enthusiasm, and which spills from the purple-and-white bleachers onto the grass that surrounds the field.
The team plays with a distinct, noticeable confidence when it enters those friendly confines – the little slice of football heaven tucked into eastern Knox County’s rolling hills. And it did so again on Saturday night – performing well enough to guarantee another game there, under the lights, with the season on the line.
East Knox (9-2) trounced Reedsville Eastern (4-5), 41-13, in the first round of the OHSAA Division VII playoffs. The fourth-seeded Bulldogs went up 20-0 after one quarter and never looked back, improving to 6-0 at home this year. They will host fifth-seeded Glouster Trimble (8-2) in the regional quarterfinals next Saturday night.
“Any time you get to play in the playoffs, especially at home, not having to drive – like Eastern had to drive two-and-a-half hours tonight, my goodness – it’s a blessing to not have to do that. …” said Reese, who played for East Knox in the mid-2000s.
“You’re playing in the playoffs, you’re playing not to go home – so when you can force another team to have to come here and play on your home field, that’s huge. And it adds to the culture of the program, and just the community, it adds a lot of excitement to it as well.”
The Bulldogs were business-like in their approach Saturday night, getting up early and never letting their foot off the gas.
They scored first on a 16-yard touchdown sprint from senior skill-back Shane Knepp, who dove past the pylon to make it 6-0 (the extra point missed) with 7:57 left in the first quarter. Then, on the next possession, Knepp scored again – this time defensively, picking off a fourth-down throw from Eastern junior quarterback Brady Yonker and taking it 65 yards to the house, untouched up the East Knox sideline.
The Bulldog defense forced another three-and-out, and the offense capitalized one more time before the first quarter expired. East Knox marched 65 yards in 77 seconds, using a 35-yard run from sophomore tailback Cole Delaughder to reach the red zone. Delaughder would finish the job moments later, taking a handoff and bulldozing his way into the end zone from 10 yards out.
Just like that, East Knox held a 20-0 lead with 1:06 left in the first quarter.
“The past two weeks have been really tough games, Highland and Danville, so that really just prepared us for this game,” Knepp said afterwards, when asked about the hot start. “I thought we brought that same energy for Eastern and it was really good.”
The Bulldogs struck twice more before halftime.
Delaughder caught a jailbreak pass near the line of scrimmage and ran it in from 27 yards out, following his blockers to paydirt. This capped off a 95-yard drive that took 10 plays and less than three minutes.
Then, after receiving the ball on the Eastern 30-yard-line following a botched punt snap, the Bulldogs scored again. Senior quarterback Peyton Lester stepped up in the pocket and found Knepp, who reversed the field and followed blockers into the end zone from 30 yards out.
East Knox led 34-0 going into the halftime locker room.
The clock ran the entire second half, per OHSAA rules. East Knox scored on its first offensive possession – a 10-play, 51-yard romp that resulted in a 6-yard touchdown plunge from Delaughder – and then played its backups the rest of the game.
Eastern scored twice in the fourth quarter – first on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Yonker to senior Jayden Evans, then on a 9-yard touchdown carry from senior Bryce Newland (the extra point missed) – to set the final score.
East Knox finished with 315 total yards Saturday to Eastern’s 232. The Bulldogs averaged 8.1 yards per play, with 184 coming on the ground and 131 through the air.
Lester threw 10-of-15 for 131 yards and two touchdowns. Delaughder ran the ball 12 times for 103 yards, while Knepp had four catches for 58 yards. Both players tallied three touchdowns.
But Reese seemed most proud of his team’s defensive effort on Saturday night. Eastern, seeded 13th in Region 27, came into the postseason having won three straight games by a combined score of 133-14. The Eagles averaged 44 points per game during that stretch.
Aside from one drive – a 17-play, 64-yard romp in the second quarter that stalled at the 2-yard-line – Eastern had little to no success moving the ball against East Knox’s starters. The Eagles’ rushing attack, which seemed nearly unstoppable to close out the regular season, was muted by the Bulldogs’ physical front seven.
“They’re a big, heavy run team, so we obviously want to make run teams throw the football. So other than the one drive that they had tonight against us, I felt like we actually did a pretty good job of stopping the run,” Reese said.
“That was our key all week: stop the run, stop the run, make them do what they’re not comfortable doing (by) throwing the football. I thought the kids did a great job of responding, the defensive coaches did a fantastic job of getting the game plan together for them, so it was a team effort and they did a great job of executing it.”
The Bulldogs found success offensively by getting the ball to playmakers like Knepp, who scored three times Saturday in three different ways. His energy early on brought the crowd to life and set the tone for the rest of the night.
“He’s taken on the leadership role pretty well,” Reese said. “So making plays – not trying to do too much, but when it’s there, when he can do more, he’s definitely grown in that area this year – not only on offense, but on the defensive side of the ball, too.
“He’s been instrumental in our success – just a great kid, great work ethic. He’s a great team player. So it’s just a lot of fun to see him blossom out there because kids like that deserve that because of the time and effort that they put in.”
Both of Knepp’s offensive scores were ‘multiple-effort’ plays, meaning he had to change course and shed tacklers to reach the end zone. Knepp said this mentality – of hitting and running and churning until the final whistle – is a part of the program’s culture.
“The coaches are always talking about just getting three yards after contact,” Knepp said. “That’s just a mentality I think everyone has.”
Now, East Knox will shift its attention to Trimble. The Tomcats are a perennial small-school powerhouse, having advanced to the Division VII state title game in 2018 (they fell to McComb, 28-3). They went 11-0 in 2019 before falling to New Middletown Springfield (which East Knox would lose to in the state semifinals) by 1 point in the second round. Last year, the Tomcats went 8-0 before falling in the regional semifinals to Newark Catholic.
Reese said the message to his team after Saturday night’s game was simple.
“It only gets harder from here. I told the boys, you know, we won’t have another game like this. Every team we play is gonna be good. We’re gonna be playing to not go home. So it’s gonna be tough. It’s gonna be tough from this point forward. …” Reese said.
“We’re looking forward to the opportunity. (Trimble is) a program that’s been to the state finals a couple years ago, they’ve been in the playoffs year-after-year, so they have that culture going. It’s gonna be a tough game for us, but we’re certainly looking forward to the opportunity.”
For the team’s nine seniors, each week represents an opportunity to extend their football careers. Knepp said he and his teammates are keenly aware of this fact – and are looking forward to next weekend, when they’ll put it all on the line once again in front of their home crowd.
“I think we’ve just gotta bring the same mindset we have the last couple weeks,” Knepp said. “We’re playing for our football lives again and Trimble’s gonna be a good team that we’re gonna need to prepare for.”
