Photos by Samantha Davis: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton's Colten Thomsen (15) motions for a touchdown as quarterback Gavin Schreurs scores in the second quarter against Lakeview Friday night in Tyler. Below: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton's Colten Thomsen runs in for a touchdown in the second quarter against Lakeview Friday night. The Knights defeated the Lakers' 42-14 behind three touchdowns from Thomsen.

TYLER — With both teams coming into the night undefeated with a pair of wins in the early start to the season, the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton football team prevailed for a 42-14 win over Lakeview Friday evening behind an all-around strong team effort and five first-half touchdowns to remain perfect.

“It’s super exciting [starting 3-0]. This hasn’t happened for RTR football in a long time,” RTR quarterback Gavin Schreurs said. “The boys are super excited, and we’re ready to keep going.”

RTR and Lakeview both scored on their first two drives, showcasing the competitiveness between the two from the jump. But, the Knights began to take control in the beginning minutes of the second quarter as they built up a 35-14 halftime lead that carried them to the end.

“It was a great first quarter, and then the second quarter was our demise tonight,” Lakeview head coach Scott Hanson said. “The second half was a 7-0 ball game. The second quarter is where the game got away from us. I’m proud of the way that our kids fought the second half … We hung together as a football team.”

Colten Thomsen had three touchdowns on the night for RTR, while Garrett Schafer had both of Lakeview’s.

Overall, RTR had 465 total yards to the Lakers’ 198 on the night. Thomsen led the Knights with 171 rushing yards on 15 carries, while Tyson Burns had 60 yards on 11 attempts. Schafer had a team-high 157 rushing yards on 12 carries for Lakeview.

RTR and Lakeview won its first two games of the season, with the Lakers on the verge of surpassing their previous year’s total wins when it went 3-6 overall. The Knights, with Friday’s victory, have now already passed last year’s total wins, when they went 2-7.

The Knights are operating under first-year head coach Ted Kern, who took over for Darren Baartman, but has been on the coaching staff for three decades and is an assistant with the boys basketball team.

“Ted, he’s a great coach. I’ve had him for basketball, and he just knows what needs to be done to win,” Schreurs said. “He knows how to win, and I’m hoping that we can keep winning.”

Thomsen had a pair of touchdowns in the first half, along with Brayden Chandler, Burns and Schreurs.

RTR received the ball to begin the game, and picked up at their own 41-yard line off the kick.

Thomsen began the drive with a 4-yard carry before being tackled by Lakeview’s Blake Peltier.

Senior Isaac Janish had the first complete catch from Schreurs to give RTR a first down, yet Lakeview set the defensive tone early with a tackle behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of three yards.

Breyfogle led the Lakers with six tackles, while Peltier followed with five. For RTR, Tucker Gile led with three tackles.

But, the loss didn’t slow down the Knights as Chandler caught a 51-yard passing touchdown from Schreurs into the end zone just over two minutes into the game. A good kick from Tyler Wichmann gave RTR a 7-0 edge to open the night.

The Lakers didn’t allow much time to pass before finding the end zone themselves, as Schafer completed a 47-yard rushing touchdown immediately after Braylon Breyfogle had an 8-yard carry to help Lakeview march down the field.

Lakeview quarterback Logan Herrick completed a successful 2-point conversion with a pass to Breyfogle to give the Lakers a slight 8-7 lead.

On RTR’s second drive, Burns set the Knights up with a 12-yard carry as Thomsen burst through a pack of defenders to bring the Knights to the 24-yard line before being stopped by Peltier.

Burns got RTR into the red zone after another pair of carries, as Thomsen ran in on the next play with a 3-yard rush. Another field goal gave the Knights back a 13-8 advantage with four minutes to go in the first quarter.

“He’s [Thomsen] a dog. He always brings the energy,” Schreurs said. “He’s ready to go 24/7, and I just knew that his big season was coming.”

Minutes later, Schafer surpassed over 100 yards on the night as he completed a 68-yard rushing touchdown. Lakeview only needed two plays on its second drive, as Herrick was first tackled for a loss of 4-yards before the touchdown.

Lakeview’s 2-point attempt was not successful, bringing the game to 14-14.

RTR began to gain control of the game, with Garrett Elton, Thomsen and Burns helping to bring the ball down the field before Burns pushed into the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown as the first quarter came to a close, putting RTR up 21-14.

RTR’s Janish and Lakeview’s Breyfogle traded fumble recoveries to start the second, yet Lane Wichmann caught an interception and brought the Knights to the 40-yard line to take back possession.

A Schreurs’ complete pass to Braden Nibbe along with a Burns’ and Thomsen carry put RTR within 2-yards of goal, as Schreurs bolstered through a push for the Knights’ fourth touchdown.

“It’s always fun to get in there,” Schreurs said. “The lines have been doing their job, and I just got to put all the thanks to them.”

RTR took possession back from Lakeview on the next drive after forcing an incomplete pass and fourth down, and Thomsen had another big rush along with a good field goal kick to give the Knights the 35-14 lead just ahead of halftime.

“We had a few injuries, the kids that came on the field stepped in and did just fine. Yeah, and you know, we got to celebrate the small victories from tonight. It was a good first quarter, a good third and fourth quarter. Second quarter was not good for us, and that’s the learning process of football,” Hanson said. “At the same time, we had a lot of kids that played tonight, and a lot of those kids are ninth and 10th graders … [We will] review our film, and get right ready for next week.”

The third quarter went scoreless for both teams, as the Knights forced a fourth down and took over in the final minute.

Lakeview was also without Jackson Staab for the night, a core defenseman for the team.

The Lakers continued to fight, although the Knights’ consistent effort on both ends of the field ultimately became too much for the Lakers to halt and embark on a comeback.

Thomsen scored his final touchdown on a 13-yard run with 7:49 to go, as the rest of the fourth quarter remained stagnant and the Knights soared to victory.

“We approached them [Lakeview] as a threat,” Schreurs said. “We just had to play fast, and we just tired them out with our pace.”

Lakeview (2-1) will remain at home and next has the tall task of taking on the three-time repeating Class A state champions and undefeated Minneota (3-0) next Friday with a 7 p.m. kick-off.

“Our goal is to be 1-0 each week. We were 0-1 this week. Now, you get to go back and regroup and get ready for the next week. There’s a lot of football season left,” Hanson said. “I love these guys, and I’m proud of the things that they’re doing … We will regroup, we’ll relearn and we’ll [get] better.”

RTR (3-0) will stay on the road and travel to Murray County Central (1-2), the 2024 Section 3A runners-up, next Friday at 7 p.m.

“We just need to keep bringing it in practice. MCC … They’ve played hard competition and they’ve played well,” Schreurs said. “We just got to keep bringing the heat.”