By ANDREW FEEBACK
Penalties and special teams plays were the difference in Friday night’s game between the Norwell Knights and the visiting DeKalb Barons.
The Knights lost 47-21 largely due to some costly mistakes on special teams and a barrage of penalties throughout the contest.
DeKalb (3-4, 2-3 NE8) scored four touchdowns on special teams: two punt returns, a kickoff return and another touchdown on a fake punt.
Norwell (2-5, 2-3 NE8) also fumbled two punt returns that both resulted in touchdowns for DeKalb.
“I’ve never seen a game with four special teams touchdowns,” coach Josh Gerber said. “That stuff killed, and penalty yards were awful. We’ve got to be more disciplined with what we’re doing.”
The Barons got on the board just two plays into the game when Xavier Bell eluded two tacklers in the backfield and sprinted 39 yards for a score.
The Knights took a 7-6 lead when Drew Graft threw a halfback pass to Brady Smith for a 39-yard touchdown.
Norwell seemed to have some momentum when the defense forced a three-and-out, but the first of two fumbled punt returns gave the ball right back to DeKalb, and a 54-yard run by Caiden Hinkle had the Barons up 12-7.
DeKalb took control with four second quarter touchdowns, the first of which came when Bell returned a punt 89 yards.
Norwell’s second fumbled punt return later resulted in a 12-yard score from Brady Culler.
Connor Schmidt took a punt 65 yards for a Baron touchdown, and it was 33-7.
Then, seemingly just for fun at that point, DeKalb ran a fake punt with only seconds left in the first half. The punter pretended the snap was high and over his head, while it actually went to Drake Hall, whose 58 yard touchdown run was the coup de grace in a first half to forget for the Knights.
Norwell scored twice in the second half: an eight-yard run from Adam Mahnensmith and a 52-yard burst from EJ Morgan.
But after Mahnensmith’s touchdown, DeKalb got a 95-yard kickoff return when Drew Dahlberg fielded it and then threw a lateral to Schmidt.
There were plenty of statistical anomalies in this one. DeKalb had only two first downs, both of which came in the fourth quarter. The Knights out-gained the Barons by 150 yards, but that was more than offset by turnovers and an absurd amount of penalties.
The Knights were penalized 16 times for 85 yards, including nine false starts.
The Barons somehow committed even more, flagged 17 times for 130 yards.
“Those are pre-snap penalties that we just should not be committing,” Gerber said. “It’s stuff that’s just got to get cleaned up and get better. I thought we showed some signs tonight, but then we’d shoot ourselves in the foot. I don’t know if we have any toes left on either foot right now. Just self-inflicted wounds; we’ve got to continue to work and get better.”
Norwell will travel to Huntington North Friday night.
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DEKALB 47, NORWELL 21
At Norwell
Score By Quarters
DeKalb 12 28 0 7 — 47
Norwell 7 0 0 14 — 21
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
D—Xavier Bell 39 run (kick blocked), 11:06.
N—Brady Smith 39 pass from Drew Graft (Graft kick), 3:38.
D—Caiden Hinkle 54 run (kick failed), 2:32.
Second Quarter
D—Bell 89 punt return (Dawson Cleverly kick), 11:04.
D—Brady Culler 12 run (Cleverly kick), 7:52.
D—Connor Schmidt 65 punt return (Cleverly kick), 6:52.
D—Drake Hall 58 run (Cleverly kick), 0:07.
Fourth Quarter
N—Adam Mahnensmith 8 run (Graft kick), 11:15.
D—Schmidt 95 kickoff return (Cleverly kick), 10:58.
N—EJ Morgan 52 run (Graft kick), 4:22.
Team Statistics
DEK NOR
First Downs 2 11
Rushes-Yards 28-158 41-240
Yards Passing 61 139
Passing (Comp-Att-Int) 4-14-0 9-20-1
Penalties-Yards 17-130 16-85
Fumbles-Lost 4-1 5-3
Punts-Average 7-36 5-29
Time of Possession 20:08 27:52
Individual Statistics
Rushing: DeKalb, Brady Culler 5-27, Xavier Bell 1-39, Will Weber 6-(minus 34), Caiden Hinkle 9-60, Drake Hall 1-58, Eli McCormick 1-5, Ashdan Chittenden 2-1, Brayden Newell 3-2. Norwell, EJ Morgan 16-96, Adam Mahnensmith 23-153, Drew Graft 2-(minus 9).
Passing: DeKalb, Weber 1-5-0-6, McCormick 3-9-0-55. Norwell, Morgan 8-19-1-100, Graft 1-1-0-39.
Receiving: DeKalb, Noah Spears 2-46, Culler 1-6, Bell 1-9. Norwell, Graft 4-43, Drew Jolley 2-28, Garry Riley 1-24, Brady Smith 2-44.
