History was made Friday night in Kinsley as the Sacred Heart Knights played in their first ever 8-man football game. Unfortunately for the Knights and their new Head Coach Shane Richards they wound up on the wrong side of that history falling to the Coyotes 42 to 6.

The game turned on two key plays. The first one occurred on the Knights first possession after the Sacred Heart defense had stop Kinsley at the Knight 30 yard line. Sacred Heart drove to the Coyote 5 yard line and on a 2 nd and goal play Senior running back Jared McCartney was headed for pay dirt, but he coughed the ball up at the 2 and Kinsley recovered the pigskin in the end zone.

A defensive struggle ensued with neither team getting close to scoring until Junior back Alex Garcia scored the first touchdown of the game on a 3 yard run for Kinsley. Following a two point conversion on a run by Senior QB Isaac Bowman, Kinsley led 8-0 with 3:07 remaining in the first half. A little over two minutes later the Coyotes struck again with a 20 yard run by Freshman Dylan Haselhorst and after Bowman threw a conversion pass to Haselhorst, Kinsley took a 16-0 lead into the break.

The Knights received the opening kick-off of the second half and would score their only touchdown of the game when McCartney galloped 50 yard for the score. The PAT failed, but the Knights were back in the game only trailing 16-6 at the 9:51 mark of the third quarter.

The second key play of the game occurred on the ensuing kick-off when Freshman Peyton Schmidt scampered 70 yard up the middle of the field to make the score 22-6. Kinsley never looked back after that. The Coyotes added three more touchdowns in the third quarter. Bowman threw a 23 yard scoring pass to Junior Levi Taylor with 6:55 remaining in the period. Next it was a 22 yard strike from Bowman to Haselhorst at the 3:00 mark and finally with 1:35 left in the third quarter Bowman ran it in from 17 yards out. When the third quarter dust had settled Kinsley was up by 36 points.

Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.

Next up for the Knights a home game against Ell-Saline. The Cardinals opened the 2020 campaign with a 28-0 shutout win at Marion. Due to Covid concerns the game on Friday will be Senior night with attendance limited to 480 fans.