FOUNTAIN CITY, Ind. – The Northeastern football team remained in the hunt for the Tri-Eastern Conference championship on Friday night as the Knights beat Lincoln 58-14.
Connor Bray scored four touchdowns for the Knights the first four times he touched the football.
“Connor Bray has really had a great year for us,” Northeastern Head Coach Mike Roeder said. “He’s been a nice compliment to our power running game.”
Bray capped Northeastern’s opening drive with a 23-yard run, while Jacob Auger added the two-point conversion and it was 8-0.
“We were ready to play,” Bray said. “You can tell before you come out. We just got the job done. They couldn’t contain the edges at the beginning.”
But Bray, a junior, understood the importance of Senior Night.
“It feels really good because I’ve played all the way up with them from elementary all the way through high school,” he said.
After the Knights forced Lincoln to punt, Bray responded with a 60-yard return and Auger added another conversion and it was 16-0 with 7:32 left in the first period.
Lincoln was able to answer to close the gap to 16-6 when Caleb Craig grabbed a 31-yard pass from Nick Cupp.
However, Bray then scored on a 48-yard run before Josh Tudor finished the first quarter with a 15-yard run to put the Knights ahead 30-6.
“Tonight was a neat night because we got to celebrate our kids,” Roeder said. “Those 14 (seniors) have never had a losing season. They’ve just won a heck of a lot of games and we’re going to miss the heck out of them, but this season is not over yet.”
“They’ve still got some more work to do, but tonight it was fun, Roeder added. “We just have to win and we can’t worry about everybody else. That’s our mission now.”
Tudor, Bray and Auger added touchdown runs in the second quarter, while Tudor picked up another in the third.
Frank Garza added Lincoln’s score in the fourth frame on a 5-yard run.
Ryan Hartmann led the Knights with 105 yards rushing, while Bray finished with 104.
Garza led the Golden Eagles with 33 yards on the ground.
Northeastern (6-2, 5-1) is at Union City (3-5, 2-4) next Friday, while Lincoln (1-7, 1-5) visits Hagerstown (4-4, 4-2).