Steele’s Malcolm Brown bulls his way through a couple of San Marcos Rattler defenders during Friday’s 49-17 win over San Marcos. Brown rushed for 177 yards and four scores in the game. Photo by Greg Bell

Steele kicker Matt Nelson made sure the Knights got off to the right foot last Friday against the San Marcos Rattlers.

Nelson’s whirling, high pooch kickoffs led to two Rattler turnovers in a row and set the tone for the Knights’ 49-17 thrashing of San Marcos at SCUC ISD Stadium in the District 27-4A opener for both teams.

Steele remains undefeated at 4-0 coming into this Friday’s match-up against their SCUC ISD rival the Clemens Buffaloes thanks to the fancy footwork of Nelson, a 5-9, 131 pound senior, and 177 rushing yards from sophomore Malcolm Brown, who continues to tear up opposing defenses.

On the opening kickoff, Nelson booted a high kick up in the air that the San Marcos return man let slip through his fingers. Dedrin Jones recovered the loose ball for the Knights at the Rattler 24. Three plays later, Malcolm Brown scored the first of his four touchdowns on a one-yard run, and Nelson connected on the first of his seven PAT kicks to put Steele up 7-0 53 seconds into the game.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Rattlers put in another return man, but the results for San Marcos were not any better as the return man let the ball slip through his hands on the bounce, which was recovered by Steele’s Brian Vandenberg at the Rattler 21.

The second Rattler fumble led to another Knight score, a one-yard sneak by quarterback Jake Trevino that put the Knights up 14-0.

Steele coach Michael Jinks said Nelson’s high pooch kicks allowed the Knights to control the tempo and momentum of the game.

“Matt Nelson is our secret weapon,” Jinks said. “I am happy for him. He works his tail off. We felt like we had an edge (on special teams) because we can use our speed. We thought if we could get a lead on them (San Marcos) then we could control this game.”

The Knights continued to roll in the first quarter. After forcing the Rattlers to punt on their first offensive series, Steele took over at its own 44 and would take only four plays to score, which came on a 15-yard Brown touchdown run.

On their next possession, the Rattlers drove as far as the Steele 35 when disaster struck again as running back Isaiah Banks could not hang on to a lateral pitch, which was scooped up by Knights’ defensive back Michael Brown, who ran it in for a 65-yard score with 3:00 left in the first.

The Knights would end the opening quarter up 28-0 and added two more scores in the second quarter, both of which came on Malcolm Brown runs of 76 and one yards, to take a 42-3 halftime lead.

Jordan Small scored on a 41-yard run for the Knights with over 3:30 left in the game. Small’s touchdown was sandwiched in between to Rattler scores in the second half, a nine-yard run by Scooter Walker in the third quarter, and a Kristian Cogdill 1-yard run with just 11 seconds left in the game.

Malcolm Brown led a Steele rushing attack that had 251 yards and Trevino passed for 85 yards, which gave the Knights 336 yards of total offense.

The Rattlers were never in the game despite grinding it out on the ground with 258 yards rushing.

“Defensively, I thought our kids bought into filling in their gaps,” Jinks said. “For the most part they did well.”

Jinks said one area the Knights could improve on is their consistency, which is being able to play four quarters of consistent football.

With the win, the Knights cracked the top 10 in this week’s Associated Press Class 4A poll.

Kick off for Friday’s game against Clemens is at 7:30 p.m. at SCUC ISD Stadium.