Knights slash Bucs

The Knights knew they had to win big in their season football opener, but a 62-0 blowout over Charleston Southern nearly broke a scoring record that had stood for 10 years.

The Knights slashed the Buccaneers over the course of four consistent quarters of domination, setting team and individual records en route the biggest season-opening blowout in team history.

Coming off a 2010 season in which they had gone 11-3 and beat Georgia in the Liberty Bowl, the Knights had to start out strong to regain a national ranking that they lost between their end of season No. 20/21 ranking and their exclusion from the rankings before the start of the season.

“Obviously it was a good first game,” Head Coach George O’Leary said, saying mistakes on the field were minimal, even while using second and third-string players. “We did what we needed to do out there.”

The Knights play Boston College at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Bright House Networks Stadium. Tickets are $30-45. Visit ticketmaster.com

The game started off with a bang, with running back Ronnie Weaver grabbing the ball on the first play and rushing for 44 yards to kick off a quick first drive. The first five times the Knights had the ball they scored a touchdown, on their way to a school record eight rushing touchdowns in the game.

That ground superiority became obvious from the start, as three rushers and the ever-mobile quarterback Jeff Godfrey teamed up to make Swiss cheese of the Buccaneer defensive line, running for 134 yards combined in the first quarter alone. Adding to Weaver’s 66 years on the ground, Latavius Murray picked up 28, Godfrey scrambled for 25 and Brynn Harvey, triumphantly returning from a yearlong knee injury, grabbed 15 in just the first quarter.

Godfrey’s frequent scrambles may have been a problem that solved itself, O’Leary said. Though he had some trouble staying in the pocket to try to find a receiver downfield, he rarely failed to make a play with his feet. On the other end of the spectrum, freshman quarterback and Oviedo High School graduate Blake Bortles went 8-for-10 with 144 passing yards after a shaky start.

A dominating shutout on defense held the Bucs to low numbers early and kept the pressure on throughout. The Bucs were in Knights territory only once in the first half, the result of a muffed punt return from UCF’s Josh Robinson, and they ended the half with 21 total yards of offense. Though Charleston Southern eventually broke the triple digit yardage barrier, they did it against a defense packed with subs from the Knights’ bench.

The Knights weren’t expecting much movement in the NCAA Top 25 polls after beating an outmatched team, but they will have a tough battle to focus on in the coming week. They kick off at home 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, hosting Boston College, which fell 24-17 against Northwestern.

“I know we need to go out there and get another win,” Murray said. “I know they want to come back from that loss, and we just want to keep the winning going.”