NEW CASTLE — Ahead by a dozen points with 3 minutes, 28 seconds to play in Friday’s football game at New Castle, Tim Burchett wasn’t sold on such a straightforward finish.

The Knoch coach approached senior do-everything player Codi Mullen on the sideline during one of the latter’s few respites and let him know such.

“I mean, look, there’s three minutes left in the game and they have three timeouts,” Burchett recalled saying minutes after the final whistle. “The game’s not even close to being over.”

Burchett was spot-on.

On cue, the Red Hurricanes’ Nate McKnight returned a kickoff 72 yards to shave his side’s disadvantage to five points. Then McKnight got behind the Knoch secondary on a post pattern and pulled in a 51-yard touchdown pass from Kyrell Harris 1:11 later for the go-ahead score in what ended up a 42-32 New Castle nonconference win.

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“Our special teams hasn’t really been putting all the work in,” said Mullen, who started at quarterback in place of the injured Colt Sprankle. “That’s probably their third or fourth (long) kick return, punt return. ... We had them in the hole, we just didn’t wrap. We didn’t tackle them.”

“We kick it to the one guy we said we can’t kick it to and bad things happened,” Burchett said. “It is what it is. We didn’t deserve to win.”

Right before, Mullen had punched the ball into the end zone for the third time — each from inside 3 yards — capping a three-play, 19-yard drive after the hosts’ Chase Lemmon coughed up a punt return.

There was a brief stoppage in play after Mullen’s touchdown because an official was grazed by a water bottle thrown from the Red Hurricanes’ bleachers.

“We really just keep our head up, keep playing at 100%,” said McKnight, who was visibly frustrated after Mullen’s third ground score. “If we didn’t play 100% like we did, we would have never came back like that. ... What it really comes down to is us playing hard, me staying up and our whole team coming together.”

New Castle (4-0) had its share of miscues. The Knights’ Ben Martin fell on mishandled Red Hurricanes exchange two snaps into the third quarter, allowing Knoch (1-3) to embark on an 11-play march punctuated by Mullen’s 9-yard air score to Kaden Spencer.

Ethan Rouleau pounced on an expertly placed Kannon Trofimuk kickoff directly after, but the Knights went three-and-out on a series that began in plus territory. New Castle’s Kaevon Gardner rumbled for an 80-yard touchdown a play after Mullen’s nearly flawless punt hit the end zone’s front pylon.

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That was one of four Red Hurricanes scoring efforts of two plays or fewer, two thanks to gashing runs by Gardner. He also had a ground score from 45 yards away in the second frame, which erased a 13-point Knoch lead.

The kickoff following McKnight’s second quick-strike score tumbled behind Rouleau, who could only work back to the 10-yard line with just inside two minutes remaining. In the shadow of his own goal post, Mullen was sacked twice before giving the ball back to New Castle on downs. Gardner put it out of reach by surging in from 3 yards right away.

For the Knights, the defeat will serve as a stinging reminder to keep their feet on the gas pedal.

“I just told them that they should all be embarrassed,” Mullen said. “Football isn’t an easy sport. It’s physical and it’s mental. We’ve got 36 kids. No one’s going to come out and do it for us. ... We’re all tired (in the) fourth quarter.”

Knoch 13 7 6 6 — 32

New Castle 0 14 6 22 — 42

First Quarter

K — Kannon Trofimuk 25 field goal, 7:20

K — Trofimuk 29 field goal, 4:44

Second Quarter

K — Codi Mullen 2 run (Trofimuk kick), 10:33

NC — Kaevon Gardner 10 run (Omar Thomas kick), 5:33

NC — Gardner 45 run (Thomas kick), 3:46

K — Mullen 3 run (Trofimuk kick), :13

Third Quarter

K — Kaden Spencer 9 pass from Mullen (Trofimuk kick blocked), 7:25

NC — Gardner 80 run (Thomas kick missed), 5:00

Fourth Quarter

K — Mullen 3 run (Mullen pass failed), 3:28

NC — Nate McKnight 72 kick return (Thomas kick), 3:15

NC — McKnight 51 pass from Kyrell Harris (Harris run), 2:04

NC — Gardner 3 run (Thomas kick), :49

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Knoch, Codi Mullen 34-160, Sam Skurka 9-17, Ethan Rouleau 2-16. New Castle, Kaevon Gardner 14-181, Kyrell Harris 11-67, Jermaine Walker 1-2, Chase Lemmon 1-1, TEAM 2-(-43).

Passing: Knoch, Codi Mullen 12-31-89-0. New Castle, Kyrell Harris 7-14-101-0.

Receiving: Knoch, Kaden Spencer 6-49, Sam Skurka 3-20, Ethan Rouleau 1-12, Keaton Oprosky 3-8. New Castle, Nate McKnight 4-67, Chase Lemmon 2-21, Kaevon Gardner 1-13.