Knoch's Austen Renfrew evades New Castle's Garrett Farah Friday night at Knoch Stadium. The Knights struggled to find much open space, falling 42-14 in Northwest Nine Conference play.

JEFFERSON TWP — The Knoch football team dropped its fourth straight game in Friday night's 42-14 Northwest Nine Conference loss to New Castle at Knoch Stadium.

Knoch (1-6, 1-5) struggled to stop the Red Hurricane defensively in all facets of the game.

“They're multidimensional and they have some speed,” Knoch coach Mike King said.

King said he felt his team was narrowing their focus to either run defense or pass defense.

“You can't just defend the interior, and you can't just defend the exterior,” he said. “You gotta defend all parts of the field.”

New Castle (6-3, 5-2) entered the game with quarterback Geno Stone as a known threat. Stone threw for three touchdowns and finished the game throwing nine-for-16 passes for 160 yards.

The Hurricanes also found success running the ball, scoring three touchdowns on the ground. The Knights gave up 205 yards on runs.

Coach Joe Cowart said he credits his offensive line for opening holes to make them a dual-threat team.

“Our guys aren't the biggest guys in the world, but our guys are playing with great leverage and getting bodies on bodies,” Cowart said. “I think we did a good job at covering people up.”

Defensively, the Hurricanes focused mainly on Knoch quarterback Mac Christy who found success early on by running up the middle and throwing short passes, but slowed down as the game continued.

“He's a one man wrecking crew,” Cowart said. “We had to do a good job at not only tacking him with one guy, but getting multiple people on him.”

Christy finished the with one touchdown, 73 yards rushing and 39 yards passing. Running back Jayden Renfrew scored Knoch's only other touchdown on a 19-yard run play with 54 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Renfrew finished with 62 yards on 8 carries.

King said the game plan was run heavy from a spread scheme.

“The plan was to spread them out and try to run the ball wherever they would give it to us,” King said. “They were giving us the middle, so we took it.”

King said the Hurricanes began stacking linebackers in the box in the second half, and the Knights adjustments were overcome by inconsistency, which he credits to a feeling of impending loss from a growing New Castle lead.

“Momentum is everything in high school football,” King said. “It happens, and we gotta' be able to respond; we didn't do that.”