The McCallum Knights routed the Lehman Lobos, 35-10 on Sept. 1 at House Park.

Rushing 34 times for 140 yards, senior Andre Blakemore backed up his recognition as week one’s CostCutters Player of the Week by scoring four of his team’s five touchdowns in week two. Junior Max Perez added 83 yards rushing and 70 yards passing, including a 26-yard TD pass to senior Day’lon Byrd that started the Knights’ scoring barrage. Blakemore scored twice in the second quarter, once in the third quarter and once in the fourth.  After leading 21-0, the Knights led Lobos at half, 21-10. Except for the short lapse in the second quarter, the defense stifled the Lobos all night, creating four turnovers and holding the team without a first down until the second quarter.

In his post-game comments, head coach Charles Taylor stressed the defensive effort as the key to his team’s victory.

“Our defense played great,” Taylor told a trio of reporters who interviewed him after the game. “They’re piggy-backing off how they played last year. Overall it’s a win, but we still have work to do.”

Defensive end Ronald Dotson agreed that the team’s success depends on everyone putting in the work every day.

“We work real hard in practice,” Dotson said. “We come out every day. I want to give a shout out to everyone on the defense from the D-lineman all the way back to the DB’s to the backups.”

Linebacker Jack Switzer also stressed that the defensive effort was due to everyone doing their part.

“We play as a unit and that’s what happens, you know? We completely shut them out in the second half,” Switzer said. “We just kept getting three and outs, we’d get tackles behind the line, and we forced a lot of turnovers,” Switzer said.

Dotson said that the team now sets its sights on Seguin, its next opponent, in hopes that this team will continue its winning ways on a path that ends with a special season in McCallum’s long football tradition.

— with reporting by Joseph Cardenas and Mia Orrick

Defensive end Ronald Dotson. Interview by Joseph Cardenas. Video by Mia Orrick.

Linebacker Jack Switzer. Interview by Joseph Cardenas. Video by Mia Orrick.

Photos by Charlie Holden, Adrian Pena, and Dave Winter.