The Belding Black Knights welcomed the Kelloggsville Rockets to Rudness Field on Friday night for an OK Silver opener. Both teams scored plentiful, but Belding’s 67 points were far too many for Kelloggsville to hang, suffering a 67-26 defeat.
Just two minutes in, Belding took a 7-0 lead. Jack Ward pushed across the goal line from a yard out, and Franco Biella added the extra point. Zach Zerfas led a responding drive for the Rockets, breaking off a long touchdown pass. A failed conversion left Kelloggsville down by one. Just seconds later, Koden McNeil scored from 9 yards out to push the lead back to eight points.
An interception by Dylan Rockburn led to Ward’s second touchdown, giving Belding a 21-6 lead with over a minute to play in the first quarter.
Zerfas and the Rockets responded early in the second quarter, with another quick touchdown drive. Belding responded with another score by Koden McNeil. The teams would swap touchdowns again, as Zerfas tossed his third touchdown while Jack Ward rushed for his third on a 43-yard sprint to the end zone. One final Rockets touchdown brought the count to 35-26 Belding after two quarters of play.
On their opening drive of the third quarter, Bryce Flynn got Belding on the scoreboard. Later in the quarter, he used his legs for a second touchdown run. In the fourth quarter, the Black Knights tacked on two more touchdowns. Dylan Rockburn found the end zone, and Owen Meinke intercepted a pass and raced 100 yards for the score.
Zach Zerfas and Kelloggsville aired it out on Friday. They threw 52 passes, completing 27 of them. Zerfas tallied 483 passing yards, but he also threw for 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Camron Townsend had 9 catches, racking up 226 yards and 2 touchdowns. Jabari Campbell turned 5 catches into 104 yards, while also adding 6 tackles on defense.
Next week, Belding (3-0) will take on Calvin Christian. Kelloggsville (0-3) will take on Hopkins in search of their first victory.
