Knights Take Another Shot At Deary Lakeside Enters A-4 Semifinals With Chance To Erase Memory Of Rout

Last year, the Lakeside Knights lost 50-0 to eventual state champion Deary in the first round of the A-4 state playoffs.

Lakeside coach Ron Miller didn’t panic or even pout. He took his sophomore-laden team off the field and focused on a rematch with the Mustangs in the future.

The future has arrived. The junior-laden Knights will try to dethrone Deary at 7 Friday night in the state semifinals in the Kibbie Dome. According to Miller, a perfect game might be necessary.

“We have a chance to win if we don’t make mistakes and have sustained drives that keep their offense off the field,” Miller said.

For three quarters last Friday night, that perfect football was on display in the Knights’ opening-round 58-20 victory over Genesee. After trailing 6-0 at the end of the first quarter, Lakeside went into a scoring frenzy behind quarterback Ken Pluff. Pluff passed for three touchdowns and ran for three more.

“Playing in the Kibbie Dome had me scared in the first quarter, but I got over the butterflies because I really wanted to win our first playoff game,” Pluff said.

Two of those passes went to Knights running back Buck Allen.

“When I walked into the Kibbie Dome I got the tingles in my body because I was nervous, but when the game started adrenaline took over and I was okay,” Allen said.

Pluff, Allen and team leader Sam Lozeau are juniors who had reason to be nervous when they walked into the Kibbie Dome: It was the site of last season’s humiliation by Deary.

“Deary is as well-coached as any team I’ve ever seen,” Miller said. “Last year they were so explosive, but they may have lost some of that this year.”

Deary may not be as explosive, but it is 10-0 and working on a 21-game winning streak. The eight-man football mercy rule that ends a game when a team leads by 45 points has been invoked 18 times in that stretch. One of the teams that went the distance with the Mustangs was Genesee.

“A lot of people didn’t give us a chance to beat Genesee, and that inspired the kids,” Miller said. “People give us less of a chance to beat Deary so that should have them fired up again.”

The turning point in Lakeside’s season came early in the year when it was beaten badly in Mullan after being picked as the team to beat in the league.

“We went into the game kind of big-headed and figured we would beat them because they lost David Reed,” Pluff said. “It was a real wake-up call for us.”

The Knights haven’t lost since, including a victory at home over Mullan that sewed up the league title. Miller credited the turnaround to a passing attack that compliments the running of Allen and Lozeau.

“We ran all the time early in the season,” Miller said. “Now we’re throwing for almost 200 yards a game and that has given our running game the ability to perform better also.”

For years, Mullan carried the torch for the NSL and battled Deary for supremacy in A-4. The torch has been passed.

“We know we’re the No. 1 team out of our league and Friday night we have to represent the NSL the best we can,” Allen said.