NEW ALBANY – Kylan Knox ran for four touchdowns and Braden Shettles threw for four more in a 66-21 New Albany homecoming win over Caledonia.
Knox broke loose on an 80-yard TD scamper on his first carry while Shettles shook off an 0-for-4 start in the passing game early on to throw an 80-yard touchdown strike to Isaiah Simpson.
“We’ve got a quarterback that can really do a lot of good things with the ball, spread it around, you know, a lot of guys touched it,” New Albany coach Cody Stubblefield said. “Kylan Knox, we blocked up front and he ran the ball hard, that’s all there is to it.
“They gave us a five-man box and our offensive line played well tonight and he reaped the benefits.”
Caledonia struck first as Cohen Clark picked off the first New Albany pass from scrimmage at the Caledonia 45. Three plays later, Clark caught a 36-yard pass from Tyler Long for the early 7-0 lead.
New Albany stormed back to score 17 points off Knox’s 80-yard run, a 27-yard Grayson Alexander field goal and another TD run of 27 yards by Knox.
Caledonia closed to 17-14 on a 72-yard run by Owen Byrd with 4:29 left in the first quarter before New Albany struck for two more scores to put the issue to rest by way of a Shettles-to-Simpson pass of 80 yards and a Knox run of 58.
The Bulldogs scored two touchdowns in just over a minute into the second quarter on a Shettles-to-Ray pass of 61 yards and another Knox TD run of 16 yards.
Caledonia scored their final touchdown on a one-yard pass from Clark to Byrd.
New Albany added two more scores on Ray’s 32-yard reception and Travon Scooter’s catch of 37 yards to send the teams to half at 59-21.
Extra Points
Turning Point: New Albany scored two touchdowns in a little more than three minutes to turn a narrow 17-14 lead into a 31-14 bulge at the end of the first period.
Point Men: Knox had four touchdowns rushing on runs of 80, 27, 58 and 16 yards and had six carries for 209 yards. Shettles threw four touchdowns of 80, 61, 32 and 37 yards and wrapped up his night 5 of 9 for 213 yards.
Talking Point: “We don’t have to worry about Braden, we know he’s going to bounce back, he makes very, very few mistakes and that (interception to start the game) was one of them, just went to the next play, didn’t worry about him, knew he was going to be able to come back the next series and do his thing.” – Stubblefield
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