HOWARD — The East Knox High School football team ran away with a 26-0 shutout Friday night over Millersport, improving its record to 3-0.

The Bulldogs’ offense outgained the Lakers in yards, 408 to 82, largely in part to team co-captain Justin Thompson. Thompson rushed for 211 yards on 25 carries with one touchdown.

“Justin Thompson played well. He played real hard and had a really good game,” said East Knox coach Tom Holton.

Thompson’s lone touchdown came with 7:11 left in the game on a 2-yard dash to the end zone.

“We put it together and played well as a team tonight. If we continue to play as a team, I know we’ll do well,” said Thompson.

Thompson wasn’t the only Bulldog thrown into the mix as a signal caller. He was joined by teammates Jordan Shriver and Steven Lilley. The three-quarterback system proved its success. Thompson completed 3-of-7 passes for 44 yards, Shriver completed 3-of-5 throws for 63 yards with one touchdown pass, and Lilley went 1-of-2 for nine yards.

“We’ve been playing two quarterbacks all season, but we just got the third quarterback cleared to play [Shriver]. He was our jayvee quarterback last year and hurt his knee playing basketball. We’ll probably continue to use more than one to see what we have for different things going into league play,” said Holton.

Co-captain Josh Grennell had a solid game on both sides of the ball. Grennell put the first six points on the board, rushing 24 yards to the end zone. With 50 seconds left before halftime on second-and-goal, Grennell scored on a one-yard run. Touchdown No. 3 resulted after Shriver connected with Grennell on a 41-yard pass. On defense, Grennell snagged an interception thrown by Millersport’s Keri Green. Green only completed 1-of-5 passing for a loss of two yards.

“ Defensively, I thought Andy Johnson did a nice job. Our outside linebackers, for the most part, did a pretty good job turning in their jet sweep. In the first half, they were hitting us with that fullback, who was getting some yards, but I thought that second half, our linebackers started getting better. We put Justin Willis in at linebacker in the second half some and I thought he did a really nice job for us,” said Holton.

East Knox starts Mid Buckeye Conference play next week at Centerburg starting at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s nice [being 3-0], but I think now the season starts. When you get into the league everything becomes a lot tougher. Teams know each other, but yet the competition becomes a lot more fierce and you really have to get ready,” said Holton.