By Andy Walter

DOVER — Dover High hadn’t faced William Penn in a real football game for a decade.

On Friday night, the Senators then had to wait an extra hour after heavy rains moved back the kickoff.

But it was worth the wait for Dover.

Sophomore Jakwon Kilby ran for all four touchdowns as the Senators eventually put away a 31-13 win over the Colonials in a mostly-empty stadium.

Dover (6-3 overall), which bounced from last week’s loss to Smyrna, never trailed but never quite put William Penn away until the fourth quarter, either. Kilby’s third TD, a three-yarder with 9:08 remaining, gave the Senators a 24-13 advantage.

The sophomore followed it up with an eight-yard TD run with 2:20 on the clock just as the rain started falling heavily again. He finished with 203 yards on 29 carries.

“That was one thing I had a lot of confidence in,” said Dover coach Chip Knapp. “The way he (Kilby) runs, he’s going to excel in any situation — bad weather, good weather. It’s kind of our ace in the hole having Jakwon, the way he plays.”

Aside from a heavy downpour just as the game started, not much rain fell during the contest until the very end. But only a few fans came out with no bands or cheerleaders on the wet evening.

Dover was up 10-7 at halftime when it started the second half with a 10-play, 47-yard scoring drive after the Colonials tried an onsides kick. Kilby finished the march with seven-yard scoring run that stretched the Senators’ lead to 17-7 with 6:48 remaining in the third quarter.

But, as they did before, the Colonials answered with a scoring drive of its own. Markell Holman scored his second touchdown of the night, walking in from five yards out to get Dover’s lead down to 17-13 late in the third quarter.

“We were a little sluggish on defense,” said Knapp. “I don’t know what to attribute that to. It was kind of a weired night with the weather and the delay.

“But that’s no excuse not to tackle and do what we normally do. We kind of got out of that funk later in the game. William Penn did a great job scheming us up and putting us in some tough situations.”

Already leading 7-0, the Senators got the chance to take control when defensive end Elijah Sessoms reached up and blocked a punt to give Dover the ball at the William Penn 22. The Senators got a 25-yard Brandon Yoder field goal out of the possession to push its advantage to 10-0.

Yoder was also 4-for-4 on PAT kicks under the tough conditions.

Dover, though, had trouble containing William Penn’s Holman. The junior scored on an 11-yard run to cut Dover’s lead to only 10-7 with 4:25 left before halftime.

Holman ran the ball 11 times for 105 yards in the first half alone.

Dover got on the board quickly on an interesting play.

Kilby looked like he was going to be spun down in the backfield for a five-yard loss. But Kilby bounced back up off the William Penn tackler and — with most of the Colonial defenders letting up — sprinted away to a 53-yard touchdown run that put Dover ahead 7-0 just over four minutes into the contest.

Kilby finished the first half with 102 yards on 11 carries.

Under the wet conditions, the two quarterbacks were a combined 4-for-14 for 23 yards in the first half.

The Senators host Salesianum on Friday night in their regular-season finale. With Dover’s open date falling on the final weekend of the regular season, the Senators will have an extra week to prepare for the DIAA Class 3A state tournament.

And if ends up as one of the tourney’s top five seeds and earns a first-round bye. Dover would actually go three weeks between the Sallies game and its first tournament matchup.

Friday’s victory guarantees Dover its third winning regular season in the last four years.

“As you look to the season, that’s a milestone that you always want to hit,” said Knapp. “The fact that we did that is very satisfying.”