MAN — After last week’s season-opening loss at arch-rival Logan, the Man High School football team looks to get into the win column on Friday night.
The odds seemed to be stacked in Man’s favor.
Why, do you ask?
Man’s opponent is the Mount View Golden Knights.
The Knights haven’t been that golden over the last few years and bring in a state-longest 28-game losing streak into the contest.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. at Man’s George A. Queen Memorial Stadium.
Mount View opened last week with a 26-0 loss to River View at the newly-opened River View High School football field at Bradshaw.
The Golden Knights, which used to field a strong football team and were often a participant in the Class AA state playoffs, haven’t won a game since the 2009 season but will come to Man hungry for a victory.
Mount View has endured back-to-back 0-10 seasons and have been spanked by the Billies during the skid. Last year, Man whipped the Golden Knights 41-12. That came after a pair of shutouts — 63-0 in 2010 and 56-0 in 2009. Man also hammered the Knights 54-6 in 2008. Prior to that, Mount View had won every meeting with Man since 1999.
Mount View made some noise early in last week’s game with a 52-yard pass from quarterback Teddy Hazzard to senior wide receiver Maurice Brown that took the ball to the River View 16-yard line.
But then things went wrong very quickly.
Three running plays lost 13 yards and a pair of 5-yard penalties moved the ball back to the Raider 44, where the Knights were forced to punt.
River View then struck for touchdown to make it 6-0 late in the first quarter on a 6-yard run by Jordan Wilson.
Wilson later made it 13-0 with a 54-yard TD run before QB Austin Walker ran in a sneak to push the lead to 20-0. The Raiders added a late score to finish off the Knights.
River View held Mount View to only 50 yards rushing for the game. Hazzard, however, had some success in the air as he was 8-for-11 for 128 yards.
Mount View’s defense gave up 314 rushing yards to the Raiders and 22 more in the air.
The Golden Knights are led by a first-year head coach in Todd McCoy.
“It’s different all-around for them this year because they have a new coach,” Man coach Harvey Arms said. “They’re coming in with a different system and a different mind-set for sure. We saw their game against River View and they did everything from an empty set with the shotgun to a power I. They do a lot of things and they are still searching for what’s best for them. We have to prepare for everything without really knowing really a whole lot about them.”
Arms said Hazzard is a good quarterback.
“Sometimes they are in the empty set and they look to throw the ball but sometimes he was forced out of the pocket and he ran the ball well,” Arms said. “As always, they are a team with good speed and good size. Every year you face them you know that Mount View is going to have good athletes on the field. This is no exception. They have a couple of big backs and a good quarterback, who is real quick. They are going to be a tough opponent.”
Man was held to 182 yards of total offense last week but were able to move the chains.
Freshman quarterback John Thomas Keffer was 6-for-22 passing for 47 yards and four interceptions in his first start. Man had seven turnovers for the game.
“We thought that he played well,” Arms said of Keffer. “There were some interceptions but that’s just part of the game. We made some mistakes and we dropped some passes. Overall we thought that we played really well.”
Braden Griffin rushed 21 times for 74 yards. Noah Maynard had seven carries for 21 yards. Fullback Neal Mullins was held to 18 yards on nine attempts.
“We thought that our offensive line did a good job,” Arms said of last week’s performance. “We were able to get some drives going. Also, we thought that our defense played pretty well. They got on the field in some tough situations.”
On defense, the Billies were led by Tracy Jones who had nine tackles. Jeremiah Beavers had six and two tackles for loss.
“Outside of the turnovers I thought that we played really well,” Arms said. “We thought the scoreboard was a bit tighter than what the score showed without those turnovers. We thought that we were playing head-to-head. But going into the game you just can’t afford to make those kinds of mistakes. We’re a young team and that happens to young teams a lot.”
Man-Mount View series
since 2000:
2011: Man 41, Mount View 12
2010: Man 63, Mount View 0
2009: Man 56, Mount View 0
2008: Man 54, Mount View 6
2007: Mount View 22, Man 8
2006: Mount View 56, Man 41
2005: Mount View 29, Man 22
2004: Mount View 26, Man 12
2003: Mount View 35, Man 20
2002: Mount View 21, Man 7
2001: Mount View 46, Man 7
2000: Mount View 39, Man 6







