St. Mary’s Ryken welcomed Bishop Walsh from Cumberland to the gridiron Friday night after the Spartans traveled nearly 200 miles for the homecoming game.

If the visitors weren’t tired from the travel, they might have been tired from seeing Ryken’s offense and defense run all over the field in a 42-0 shutout, as the Knights gave the Spartans their first loss of the season.

Ryken is now 3-3 overall under new head coach Jerry Franks. Franks was all smiles after the game and shook hands with his supportive staff of coaches.

“Our line has just been doing an outstanding job,” Franks said. “It’s a total team effort. I think last week was a confidence booster. We played here against O’Connell (Va.) [on Sept. 14] and we just didn’t finish. In my opinion, we outplayed them, we just didn’t finish.”

Franks said that his team played well the next week against St. Albans (Washington, D.C.) with only about four plays that didn’t go as planned, but it was the three long touchdown passes that were the difference makers in that game.

“We then beat Bishop Ireton (Va.) [on Sept. 29] and that was important for us,” Franks said, “and tonight the guys knew what was at stake. They knew that they [Bishop Walsh] were undefeated. We just have to maintain our composure and continue to work hard, that’s our motto.”

Friday night, junior running back Chazz Bradner set up the Knights’ first touchdown after a 77-yard run to the Bishop Walsh 3-yard line. Bradner had 9 carries for 143 yards on the night.

Moments later, Junior Brandon Edwards crossed the plane for a one-yard touchdown run to start the scoring for the Knights. Senior kicker Sean Garrahan was good on the extra point to make it 7-0 just 93 seconds into the contest. Garrahan was reliable, going six for six on the extra points on the night.

Senior running back KaDarrius Campbell put the Knights ahead 14-0 at the seven-minute mark with a 32-yard run for a score.

Just 1 minute 25 seconds into the second quarter, Ryken freshman linebacker Jayson Johnson stripped the ball from Bishop Walsh quarterback Terrell McGraw and ran the ball back 87 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-0.

Edwards scored his second touchdown of the night on a 10-yard carry with 1:13 left until halftime. And just before the first half ended with Bishop Walsh again in position to get some points, sophomore Kyle Goddard intercepted a McGraw pass and ran it back for a 86 yards for the touchdown.

The Knights took the 35-0 score into halftime.

With the running clock going in the second half, Bradner put one more touchdown on the board for the Knights 6:50 into the fourth and final quarter.

Ryken starting senior quarterback Ryan Deal, a Thomas Stone High School transfer, only threw two passes on the night, completing one of those to junior Josh Carpenter for 56 yards.

Deal said he enjoys wearing his new uniform and was extremely proud of his team and is overly happy with his current coaches.

“Last week was definitely a big win; it was a lot closer, but this week is homecoming week so everybody was fired up,” Deal said. “We needed this win for our school, for everybody to believe in us and now we’re .500 and we’re going to end the season 7-3. I’ve never had coaches like this, it’s ridiculous, it’s awesome.”

Deal is sharing the duties with Carpenter and Goddard.

“It’s nice to get them in and get them experience,” Deal said, “because they’ll be here next year.”

Bishop Walsh entered the game at 5-0 and went back to Cumberland at 5-1.

“Effort, we lacked effort,” Bishop Walsh head coach Eugene Taylor said, “No excuses. They [Ryken] were a good team, well-coached, but I lost my starting center whose 6-5, 200 pounds. My backup [sophomore Weston Sensabaugh] is 130-135 pounds. He did a wonderful job. We are low in numbers, but we’ve picked up more. Last year we started with just 13.”

Ryken will host Avalon at 7 p.m. Friday.

tshowalter@somdnews.com

St. Mary’s Ryken 42, Bishop Walsh 0

Bishop Walsh 0 0 0 0

Ryken 14 21 7 0

First quarter

SMR Edwards 1 run (Garrahan kick), 1:33

SMR K. Campbell 32 run (Garrahan kick), 7:00

Second quarter

SMR J. Johnson 87 fumble recovery (Garrahan kick), 1:25

SMR Edwards 10 run (Garrahan kick), 10:47

SMR Goddard 86 interception return (Garrahan kick), 11:49

Third quarter

SMR Bradner 3 run (Garrahan kick) 6:50

Team stats

BW (13 first downs, 29-114 rushing, 79 passing, 2-1 fumbles, 3-30 penalties)

SMR (10 first downs, 26-267 rushing, 56 passing, 0-0 fumbles, 11-85 penalties)

Top individual performers

Rushing BW: Conroy 12-88; SMR: Bradner 9-143, Edwards 8-53

Passing BW: Weedon 5-15-2 79; SMR: Deal 1-2-0 56

Receiving BW: Rhodes 3-88; SMR: Carpenter 1-56