By Tim Mastro

CAMDEN — Friday was as tough of a practice as there can be for the Dover High football team.

The Senators gathered that day as they learned about the unexpected death of offensive line coach Mark Young.

While they mourned Friday, they honored their coach on Saturday with a victory, defeating crosstown rival Caesar Rodney 31-6.

“I’ve never heard my team that silent during practice, it was hard on everyone,” said senior quarterback Jordan Moran. “But I feel like it brought us all together. We know that he would have wanted us to come out here and play this game. He was as pumped for this game as we were, so it meant a lot to take care of business.”

Moran led the Senator offense with a pair of first half touchdown throws — one to freshman John Parker for 20 yards and another to senior Tyir Trott for 49. Jakwon Kilby added a 61-yard rushing touchdown as Dover raced out to a 21-0 lead in the second quarter.

It was the fourth straight win for Dover (4-1) against Caesar Rodney, leaving the seniors undefeated in their careers in the rivalry matchup, pending a possible playoff game since all Class 3A teams qualify for the postseason this year.

Saturday’s contest began with a moment of silence for Coach Young, 45, who was a Dover alum. The Senators followed up by forcing CR into a three-and-out before Moran’s first touchdown pass gave them the lead less than three minutes into the game.

“Obviously it was difficult to play,” said Chip Knapp, Dover’s first-year coach. “We lost a good coach and a good friend. A guy who was really making an impact on our team in a real positive way. To try to process this, there was a lot of shock. We said we want to honor him by putting our best foot forward.

“The one thing he said to me was it was a dream come true to coach at his alma mater. He wanted to make an impact and have our guys succeed. That was the challenge today and our guys did a really good job of that.”

Brandon Yoder added a 27-yard field goal for the Senators and Erick Seth capped the scoring with a 64-yard interception return for a touchdown. It was Seth’s second interception of the day while Trott also picked off a pass for Dover and Julius Bumbrey recovered a fumble.

Julian Harris scored the lone touchdown for Caesar Rodney (0-5) on a 77-yard pass from Andre Moore in the final two minutes of the first half. Nate Waite paced the CR defensive effort with a pair of interceptions and Clay Friend also recorded an interception.

Not only has Dover won fourth consecutive games against the Riders, it is also on a four-game winning streak since it lost its opener this year at Arundel, Md.

“Coming into the season as a new coach you’re trying to anticipate what’s going to happen so if you would have said we would be 4-1 at this point I’d be real happy with it,” Knapp said. “It’s helping the guys buy into what we’re teaching them. We’re in a great situation with our team right now but we know every week will be a tough opponent and a new challenge.”