ELIZABETHTON — Defense seemed to be an afterthought at Goddard Field on Friday night as the Chuckey-Doak Black Knights rolled to a 71-46 season-opening football win over the Unaka Rangers.
The two teams took nearly two hours to play the first half alone as Chuckey-Doak went to the locker room with a 45-22 lead.
Chuckey-Doak led throughout.
The Black Knights' Hayden Roper scored six touchdowns, including long runs of 56, 38, 63, 58 and 49 yards.
Chuckey-Doak grabbed a 14-0 lead early in the first quarter on a 56-yard run by Roper and a 32-yard TD catch by Dominic Hahnlan.
Unaka pulled within 14-8 with 1:27 left in the first when Connor McKinney scored on a 24-yard TD pass on fourth-and-5 and the Rangers punched in a two-point conversion.
The wildness was just beginning, though. The two teams managed to trade touchdowns over the final 1:27 of the first with Chuckey-Doak's Ethan Heimiller scoring from 48 yards out and Unaka scoring on a 76-yard screen pass.
That made it 21-16 Chuckey-Doak at the end of the first quarter, and Unaka got no closer.
Roper scored three times in the second quarter and Unaka's Micah Gray hauled in a 30-yard TD catch for the 45-22 halftime score.
Unaka outscored Chuckey-Doak 16-8 in the third.
Unaka first got a safety and then a 47-yard TD pass from Brynin Repass to McKinney before a two-point conversion pulled the Rangers within 45-32.
Roper followed with a 58-yard TD to put Chuckey-Doak ahead 52-32, and Unaka's Ashton Fuller caught a pass for a TD to make it 52-38 at the end of the third quarter.
Chuckey-Doak's final 19 points came in the fourth quarter on a 49-yard TD by Roper, a 29-yard TD pass on fourth-and-4, and a Marcus Britt 6-yard TD run.
Unaka's Micah Gray had a 1-yard TD catch for the Rangers' final points.
Chuckey-Doak will play at Grainger – a 21-7 winner at Claiborne in its season opener – next Friday.
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