HOWARD — When East Knox used an onside kick to start its game with Fredericktown, a kick the Bulldogs recovered, and five plays later, took a 6-0 lead when Jaxson Lester hit Cason Fawcett for a touchdown pass, the Freddies knew they were in for a battle.
Fredericktown traveled to East Knox with a 6-1 record, and the home team was carrying a 1-6 record.
Still, Bulldogs’ coach Andrew Beatty believes his team is better than its record would reflect.
“These young men have always emptied the tank and done whatever we needed,” Beatty said. “They are no strangers to pressure, we have lost a couple of games by one point.”
East Knox missed their extra point, leaving the door open for the Freddies to take the lead when they scored a touchdown and kicked the extra point with three minutes remaining in the opening stanza.
Eventually, Fredericktown took a 14-6 margin into the locker room at intermission.
The Bulldogs drew to within two points after a rushing touchdown made the score 14-12 in the third period.
The Freddies responded with their own rushing TD to open the gap to 21-12.
After East Knox stopped Fredericktown and forced them to punt, a glimmer of hope when Rush Beatty broke an 80-yard punt return for the touchdown. The PAT cut the deficit to 21-19, but that’s as close as it got.
With seven minutes remaining in the game, Fredericktown scored one more time for the final points in a 28-19 victory.
Freddies coach Scott Spitler said the win was not textbook.
“It was ugly, but we made it ugly a couple of times,” Spitler said.
Following the game, the two teams met on the 50-yard line for a prayer for Aiden Riggle, the East Knox player battling cancer.
Fredericktown improves to 7-1 overall, 4-1 in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference. The Freddies host Danville next week.
The Bulldogs drop to 1-7, 1-4 and will be home against league-leading Centerburg on Friday night.
(Photos by Dan Werner)
