HOWARD — The Ohio Division IV state champions came to town on Friday. And it showed.
Bishop Hartley out gained the East Knox Bulldogs 354-14 in the first half on the way to a dominating 43-22 victory.
The Hawks were impressive from the start, rattling off six touchdowns in their first six drives, needing just 22 plays to do so.
“Coming into this game, we knew it was an opportunity to compete against one of the better teams at our level,” said East Knox coach Calvin Hatfield. “We were excited to see how we match up to the champs, to someone at the level that we want to be. I was curious to see how competitive we are.”
The Bulldogs was impressive in another way — they played just as hard in the second half, and it showed on the scoreboard.
Down 43-0 at the start of the third, East Knox’s Dylan Wears took the first snap from center and faked a handoff, bootlegging to the right. The fake worked so well it completely froze Hartley’s front seven, and Wears was able to avoid two tackles on the way to a 79-yard carry that ended at the 1.
