RACINE, Wis. — Beloit Memorial’s Dontavious Olson sure believes in that if first you don’t succeed stuff.
After dropping a fourth-down would-be touchdown pass from Aydn Potter in the third quarter, the senior switched over to defense and immediately picked off a Racine Park pass and returned it 32 yards for a score.
“Donte didn’t catch it from our quarterback, but at least he got it from theirs,” Beloit head coach Brad Dement said.
That TD put the Purple Knights ahead 23-12 and well on their way to a 30-12 victory in their season opener at Pritchard Field.
Beloit Memorial outscored Racine Park 17-6 in the second half and the Knights held Park to only 20 rushing yards and outgained the hosts 275-135.
“Our defense played phenomenal,” Dement said. “They played lights out. Park scored on a kickoff return and on a broken play when their quarterback got out of the pocket and one of our guys came down and their receiver got behind us. Other than that, we really held them down.”
The Knights did most of their damage on the ground, running for 209 yards on 42 carries with junior James Ford a one-man wrecking crew with 28 carries for 149 yards and three touchdown runs of 11, 18 and 20 yards. He also caught two passes for 52 more, giving him 201 all-purpose yards.
“It was a grind it out kind of game for our offense with Ford getting the bulk of the carries, as he should,” Dement said.
“There were not a lot of big plays. I thought we could do a little bit better up front with the offensive line, but we have some new kids and it’s going to take some time to jell. They’ll get better.”
The Knights still have some work to do in the passing game, too. Potter completed 4-of-10 passes for 66 yards.
Ford put the Knights up in the first quarter with an 11-yard run and Noah Fry booted the point-after kick. East’s Jwan Eastland returned the ensuing kickoff 87 yards for a score.
“That was kind of deflating, but they missed the extra point so we were still up,” Dement said.
Ford’s 20-yard TD run made it 13-6 at the half, as the Knights threatened, but had a pass picked off.
After Fry booted a field goal for a 16-6 lead, Olson’s pick-six and Ford’s final TD run capped off the victory.
• UP NEXT: Beloit plays old Big Eight foe Madison East (0-1) at Lussier Stadium in Madison at 7 p.m. this Friday.
• BOXSCORE:
BELOIT MEM. 30, RACINE PARK 12
Beloit....7 6 3 14 –- 30
R. Park 6 0 0 6 –- 12
BM — Ford, 11, run (Fry kick)
RP — Eastland, 87, kickoff return (kick failed)
BM — Ford, 18, run (kick failed)
BM — FG, Fry
BM — Olson, 32, interception return (Fry kick)
RP — Eastland, 75, pass from Rosales (pass failed)
BM — Ford, 20, run (Fry kick)
TEAM STATS — Rushing: BM 42-209, RP 11-20. Passing: BM 66, RP 115. Passes: BM 9-3-1, RP 14-6-1. Punts: BM 3-38.7, RP 4-27.5.
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS — Rushing: BM, Ford 28-149, West 5-23, Reed 6-23. RP, Eastland 3-10, Deleon 8-10. Passing: BM, Potter 9-3-1, 66. RP, Hunter 12-5-1, 40; Rosales 2-1-0, 75. Receiving: BM, Ford 3-56, Olson 1-10. RP, Eastland 6-115.
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