For Rahniah Smith, Saturday was a chance to prove he could play when the bright lights shined. The junior quarterback proved that and more as he ran for two touchdowns and threw for a score to lead City to a 40-0 win over Poly in a penalty-marred affair in the teams’ traditional rivalry game at Morgan State University.

The rivalry, one of the oldest in the country, has been contested for 135 years. City (5-3) holds a 67-62-6 lead in the series, and the victory was the Black Knights’ 12th straight in the regular season against their rival.

“If feels great to win this game,” said Smith, who was also named the game’s Most Valuable Player. “The first half, I thought I had a terrible game, but then I settled down. All they did was talk trash before the game, but we played our game and you saw what happened.”

The Engineers (2-6) didn’t do themselves any favors, committing six turnovers in the loss.

“From the very beginning, we lost momentum,” first-year Poly coach Terrence Wheeler said. “When you turn the ball over as much as we did, momentum switches very quickly. The team that captures that momentum is usually the team that wins, and that’s what happened today.”

Poly wasted little time in giving away the ball. The Engineers decided to go for a fourth-and-1 at their own 42-yard line on their first possession, but a botched exchange between the center and quarterback Troy Brown led to a fumble, which City recovered at the Poly 26.

The Knights took it from there, using six plays and a 12-yard touchdown run by Smith out to take an 8-0 lead after the 2-point conversion run with 4:04 left in the first quarter.

Poly’s next drive wasn’t much better, as Brown fumbled at his own 3, giving City a first-and-goal at the 1. Smith scored on the next play and gave the Knights a 16-0 lead after the 2-point conversion with 2:45 left in the quarter.

The Engineers had their best chance to score on their next drive, as they marched from their own 35 to the Knights’ 24. Wheeler elected to go for a 40-yard field goal with 11:15 left in the second quarter, but the kick by Dillon Riley was short.

Poly was still in the game at the half, but the Knights’ defense made sure that wasn’t the case for long. On the Engineers’ first offensive play of the half at their own 31, a fumble on a scramble led to City’s Everett Stapleton picking up ball at the 24 and scoring a touchdown to make it 24-0 just 12 seconds into the second half.

Smith would go on to throw two touchdown passes in each of the final two quarters, one of 14 yards to Julius Dorsey Jr. and another on beautiful pass of 34 yards to Darryl Spence in the corner of the end zone with 10:16 left to account for the final margin.

“This never gets old,” City coach Rodney Joyner said of beating Poly. “We’re actually at the same point, 5-3, as we were last year. We’ve had some bumps and bruises along the way on the season, but we’ve gotten it together and the guys performed well today.”

Senior running back Jerrod Mack Jr. played in his third game in the rivalry, but he knows how special this is. He has a little history to go by.

“This is everything. My father played in this game, so I know what this means,” Mack said. “Every game you play against them is going to stay with you the rest of your life, so I learned early to never take this for granted.”

Poly 0 0 0 0 — 0

City 16 0 16 8 — 40

C — Smith 12 run (Smith run)

C — Smith 1 run (Heerad pass from Smith)

C — Stapleton 24 fumble return (Mack run)

C — Dorsey 14 pass from Smith (Smith run)

C — Spence 34 pass from Smith (Mack run)