King’s Fork defense feasts on Indian River, picks up second straight shutout with Southeastern District victory
King’s Fork sent its first-team defense back on the field in the final seconds as Indian River’s offense threatened to score.
Leading by four scores, there was a big reason for it.
“We wanted that doughnut,” said Bulldogs defensive back Kaletri Boyd. “We wanted that doughnut.”
The defense prevailed as the sixth-ranked Bulldogs beat No. 11 Indian River 28-0 Friday night in a Southeastern District showdown.
The Bulldogs (2-0), who shut out Smithfield last week in their season opener, have now outscored their first two opponents 69-0.
The last time King’s Fork started the season with back-to-back shutouts was 2014, when the Bulldogs outscored Deep Creek and Wilson 89-0.
King’s Fork coach Anthony Joffrion couldn’t stop praising his players, defensive coordinator Jamie Hornsby and new assistant coach Martin Asprey, who last season was the head coach at Grassfield High.
“We just have great coaches. My defensive coordinator, Coach Hornsby, does a great job preparing, and Coach Asprey is phenomenal for our defense,” Joffrion said. “So, our defensive staff has really bought into the culture that we’ve created, and we just focus on getting better every single day. We did pitch a shutout, but there’s a lot of things that we have to work on. We had a lot of mistakes.”
Judging by the score and the stats, it sure didn’t seem like it.
The Bulldogs held Indian River — which outscored first two opponents, Hickory and J.R. Tucker, 71-12 — to fewer than 150 yards of total offense.
The King’s Fork offense wasn’t too shabby either.
After scoring just seven points in the first half, the Bulldogs got it together.
The Bulldogs, who had lost five of their last six games to the Braves, took an early 8-0 lead when quarterback Cameron Butler threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Boyd before a 2-point conversion.
“It took a little while to get rolling, but after we got it rolling, we were good,” Boyd said. “It was a good win, but we’re definitely not done.”
In the third quarter, Boyd scored on a 7-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0. Butler scored on a 16-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Jahmel Mackey to complete the scoring.
“We got a pretty young team, and we got our feet wet in week one against Smithfield,” said Butler, who completed 10 of 21 passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns, and also rushed for 50 yards and another score. “We came out here and executed on all cylinders today. It feels great.”
Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com Follow @LHRubama on Twitter.
