Knight Hawks burned by former quarterback, lose second straight

A familiar face in a new place burned the Vegas Knight Hawks as the team dropped its second straight contest.

Vegas lost to the Bay Area Panthers, 62-44, Saturday, May 6 from the SAP Center in northern California. That’s the first loss for the Knight Hawks franchise to the Panthers after taking both meetings last year.

These two teams will play again in mid-June from Las Vegas.

Up next, Vegas will host the Arizona Rattlers Saturday, May 13 from the Dollar Loan Center with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.

Former Knight Hawks quarterback Dalton Sneed, now with the Panthers, scorched his former team for seven touchdowns in this runaway victory. He didn’t record his first incompletion until the 10:31-mark of the third quarter. To that point, he was 8-for-8 with five touchdown passes.

Sneed tossed a touchdown pass on the game’s opening drive to put the home team up 6-0. He’d follow it up with a two-point conversion after a flag negated a blocked point after attempt.

Later in the opening quarter, Sneed broke a big run to get Bay Area down to the goal line before it was punched in on the ground three plays later.

Just before halftime, Sneed tossed his fifth touchdown pass in the form of a 39-yard bomb to put the Panthers up 42-18 on the Knight Hawks.

Sneed went nearly perfect, completing 14-of-17 passes for 170 yards and seven touchdowns while putting up a franchise-record in points.

Vegas was lifted by a strong first half performance by receiver Frank Brown who tallied two touchdowns in the first 30 minutes. He finished with 100 yards receiving on eight catches and two touchdowns.

Quarterback Daquan Neal had a strong night with five touchdown passes on 15-of-24 passing for 214 yards while also running for a touchdown.

The Knight Hawks had their most success late in the scoring on back-to-back drives to cut the deficit from 25 points to 11.

Running back Davonte Sapp-Lynch got some revenge on his former team with a receiving touchdown from six yards out. Sapp-Lynch was the first-ever draft pick by the Bay Area franchise.

After a Panther fumble on the ensuing kick return, the Knight Hawks had a chance to slice into that deficit even more. Neal would find receiver Jordan McCray in the end zone for six more points but would not convert on the two-point conversion attempt.

Backup quarterback Joe Mancuso would enter the game in the fourth quarter and would strike for six on a touchdown throw to receiver Caleb Holley. Earlier in the game, Holley scored on a pass from Neal as he finished with two touchdowns on two catches for 24 yards.