Bulldogs clip Grafton in playoffs

King’s Fork High School’s football team was playing in its first home playoff game ever on Friday night, and it made the most of it.

“There will only be one first,” Bulldogs coach Joe Jones said he told his players. “They wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to play at home again.”

And take advantage they did. Six different Bulldog players scored in No. 4 King’s Fork’s 38-3 romp over No. 13 Grafton High School in the first round of the Region 4A South playoffs.

“We felt like we had an advantage, a speed advantage,” Jones said.

He said one of his team’s goals was to establish itself defensively, and he was pleased with what he saw on that front.

“Defense did a great job,” he said.

He noted Bulldogs defensive coordinator David Waddell had been pouring significant energy into coming up with a way to stop the option that Grafton is known for using, and his hard work paid off.

“I know he’ll sleep better tonight,” Jones said.

Defense gave King’s Fork’s offense the opportunity to get going after the Clippers successfully stopped that offense on its first two drives. Bulldogs senior defensive back TyQuan Weston created an offensive drive for his team with an interception in the first quarter.

Shortly thereafter, King’s Fork junior quarterback Ryan Kluck made a shuffle pass to senior slotback Duke Santora, who ran it most of 70 yards for the game’s first score.

“I was glad for Duke,” Jones said. “He’s really our only full time two-way player.”

In addition to playing outside linebacker, he was the team’s leading rusher with five carries for 86 yards and a touchdown, with the shuffle pass counting as a run.

King’s Fork was playing without star junior feature back Deshaun Wethington. Jones said the decision was made on Thursday to rest him as his hamstring is still recovering.

“We just didn’t want to push it,” Jones said. “All indications are he’ll be good to go next week, but we’ll play it by ear.”

The Bulldogs proved to have impressive depth in the backfield.

“We ran three or four different (feature) backs tonight,” he said.

In addition to Santora, senior Keyon Ross ran seven times for 71 yards and a touchdown, senior D’Angelo Dillard ran eight times for 45 yards and a touchdown and junior Notorious Brown contributed five carries for 38 yards.

Junior slotback Quadarius Boyd had four carries for 18 yards and senior slotback Trelen Cox had one run for 15 yards.

Another player who stretched his legs was Kluck, who scored on an option play, running 51 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.

Kluck said, “It felt really good because it was the first one,” not just of the season, but of his varsity career.

“Ryan needed to have a great game, get his confidence back,” Jones said. “He did a great job tonight.”

He was 3-for-4 passing for 71 yards, including a 46-yard pass to senior wide receiver Camryn Little in the second quarter that set up a 12-yard touchdown run by Dillard, making it 31-0 just before halftime.

Also in the second quarter, senior kicker Patrick Wall put a 33-yard field goal through the uprights, and Weston scored a touchdown about four minutes after that.

King’s Fork (9-2) will have the chance next week for another first — a double-digit win tally — and it will try for it at home. The Bulldogs will host No. 12 Booker T. Washington High School.