Sports - September 2003

Knights ready for Bessemer

Published September 24, 2003

By JOHN MARK BROOKS, Staff Writer

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Head coach Lonnie Custer of the North Lincoln Knights makes no excuse for his team’s 0-5 record. He does, however, point out that the schedule is tough.

“We play one of the top three hardest schedules in all of 1A football in the state of North Carolina. Before we played Maiden we were at number 4 (scheduled difficulty) so who knows where we are now,” he said.

OFFENSE

Last week, in a disheartening 77-0 loss, Todd Eaton recorded a career game for the Knights as he topped the century mark in rushing. It was the best rushing game ever for, not only the aforementioned, but the team as a whole.

Custer hopes the momentum they created in the running game carries over into this week’s match up against Bessemer City.

“We ran the ball well against Maiden. Todd was banged up some for the last game, but he went out there and ran the ball hard. We need to carry that over into this game, and not turn the ball over,” he said.

Custer believes that when the Knights put the ball in the air they are going to have be consistent.

“We need it (consistency) more in our passing game. We’ve struggled with turnovers in that facet of the game all season,” he said.

DEFENSE
 

Entering the game against the Yellow Jackets, Custer knows they will have to try to contain a monster of a running game. In their previous game against the Cherryville Ironmen a non-stop running onslaught led to 400 yards rushing.

Custer feels the key to slowing down that attack is senior signal-caller Deontae Davis.

“We have to contain their running game. Deontae is a great athlete who does a good job running their system,” he said.

The coach believes part of the success the Yellow Jackets have can be directly attributed to their coach.

“Coach Crawford does a real good job of utilizing the talent he has and that is part of what makes them so explosive,” he said.

X-FACTOR

What do the Knights have to do in order to play well against Bessemer City? Custer believes part of that success is easy.

“If we can hold on to the football, then I think we can be competitive in this ball game,” he said.

There has been some controversy about some roster moves Custer made last week against Maiden in the JV game and the varsity game.

The roster move in questio, consisted of 16 freshman and 13 sophomores playing in the JV game to “allow the kids a chance to play against kids their own age and to boost their confidence.”

Custer says criticisms will not worry him.

“At the end of the day, anybody can question my coaching style or what plays I am running, but they can never question my ethics. We will move on and not be overly concerned about everybody’s opinion on what happened,” he said.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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