Knightdale knew they would have to contain Bengals junior running back Cory Hunter in order to have a chance at Fuquay-Varina on Friday night. Opponents don’t have to watch too many minutes of Bengals game tape to know that the 2008 Tri-8 conference player of the year is one of the best football players in the area.

But Knightdale didn’t know they would have to slow sophomore speedster and Fuquay newcomer, Ricky Ferguson, too. At the end of the evening, the Knights hadn’t done either as they left Bengals Stadium with a 38-14 season-opening loss.

Hunter scored on Fuquay’s first play from scrimmage, a 59-yard touchdown run, and never took his foot off the accelerator on the way to 201 yards rushing and three touchdowns on the night. Ferguson made a nice first impression on the large Fuquay crowd scoring the game’s second touchdown on a five yard run in the first quarter. Then, he fielded a third quarter kickoff at his own 15 yard line, and took it 85 yards for his second score of the game.

Hunter is only a junior, and began building his impressive resume last fall as a sophomore. So, he offered Ferguson a little advice before the 10th-grader made his Bengals’ debut.

“I just told him to treat it as any other game, not to be nervous, just settle down and do his thing and good things are going to happen,” Hunter said.

Ferguson said he used the excitement to find another gear on his 85-yard scoring return.

“I was just thinkin’ try to score for my team,” Ferguson said. “It’s like if you ever ran from a dog, it’s a scary feeling. You know, you get that extra boost of adrenaline and turn it on.”

Senior quarterback, Nate Budde had a nice evening, rushing for 76 yards himself, including one 55-yard run that set up Kirk Stephenson’s 25-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.

Fuquay’s defense showed it still has plenty of teeth in 2009. Senior linebacker, Isaac Minor intercepted a Knightdale pass in the first quarter, and Bengals junior, Shaun Underwood sacked Knights’ quarterback, Ben Bolling in the second quarter. Junior defensive back, Travis Long picked off another pass in the second half. Fuquay limited Knightdale to 142 yards in the air and just 70 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, Budde and the Fuquay offense were taking care of the football.

“That’s one thing we preach offensively – no turnovers,” Fuquay coach Ryan Habich said. “Defensively, we want to create turnovers. Anytime you can play a game where you have no turnovers and no penalties, you’ve got a good chance of winning a football game, and we did that tonight.”

Knightdale coach, Kamelio Johnson said he was impressed with Fuquay.

“They beat us physically on both sides of the ball,” Knightdale coach, Kamelio Johnson said. “Sometimes it’s hard to find a silver lining when you get beat up physically, but we did have a couple of guys that did well at times and collectively we did well at times. We just didn’t have enough to put plays together. And sometimes when you start off in the hole it’s hard to dig your way out.”

The Bengals (1-0) hit the road this week, traveling to Clayton High (0-1). The Comets are coming off a 20-7 loss to Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons High.