INDIANA — Star running back DeQuan West was hard to find for Indiana in the first two quarters.

But luckily for the Little Indians, he was impossible to miss after halftime.

Indiana scored 36 seconds into the second half to break a 7-7 deadlock before pulling away from the Knoch Knights for a 28-7 victory Friday night in a Greater Allegheny Conference football tilt at Andy Kuzneski Field.

In a game both teams needed to keep their playoff hopes alive, it was the Little Indians who found the big plays to maintain control of their own destiny.

Leading the charge for Indiana was West, who finished with 102 yards on the ground despite just one carry for no gain in the first half.

After a long Knights drive late in the second quarter knotted the score at 7, Indiana took the second half kickoff and started feeding West.

He popped his first run for 17 yards, and he made a defender miss in the hole on his second run to spring him for 42 more. After a quarterback keeper set the Little Indians back 5 yards, West took a pitch and busted it outside for a 14-yard touchdown, putting Indiana in the lead for good.

“There were some things — we weren’t executing inside — we corrected in the second half,” Indiana head coach Mark Zilinskas said. “We wanted to come out and just take it right to them and see what we could do offensively.

“DeQuan had a couple great runs to set the tone, and a good, quick score is exactly what we needed to get momentum.”

Despite that momentum, the Knights came out and had success with their wildcat formation. Lining up standout tailback Cody Milsom in the shotgun to take direct snaps fueled Knoch’s drive deep into Indiana territory.

Milsom and Ben Lowery’s running drove the Knights from their own 18-yard line to inside the red zone. But Knoch’s yearlong struggle at punching in touchdowns continued and saw the Knights turn the ball over on downs after a false start penalty put them behind the chains.

“I think that’s the tale of the game,” Knoch coach Mike King said. “You’ve got to capitalize on drives. You move the ball the distance of the field, you’ve got to put it in the end zone, which has been a problem. There has to be some resolve. There can’t be penalties in critical situations.”

The failed drive gave the Little Indians the ball at their own 24, but it would take them only four plays to make it a two-score game.

West gained the first 23 yards on two carries, and a Riley Stapleton catch put Indiana in Knoch territory. Ian Scott took the next handoff and gashed the Knights for a 41-yard touchdown run, effectively taking Knoch’s playoff hopes with him.

But the Knights did mount one last comeback attempt, as Milsom again used the wildcat to drive inside Indiana’s 5-yard line. Milsom finished the game with 143 yards on 33 carries, but his fumble inside the 5 on that drive sealed Knoch’s fate.

“It’s happened a lot this year,” King said. “They played a good football game tonight. We got high school kids trying the best they can, and we make mistakes. Luckily, this is just a game. The kids played hard and we just came up short.”