HS
Football
Knights
manage to beat Tigers in mistake-filled contest
By Fred Sherwin
The Orleans Star
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St.
Peter Knights running back Josh Smith breaks
through a hole in the line of scrimmage during
their game against the St. Matthew Tigers
on Thursday, Oct. 18. Fred Sherwin/Photo
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Pardon
my misuse of a tired old clich� but if Thursday's highly
anticipated high school football game between the St. Peter
Knights and the St. Matthew Tigers was a horse, they would
have shot it midway through the third quarter.
In
a tired old nag of a football game, the Knights managed
to score nine points more than their east end rivlas,
but that includes a last minute touchdown that was scored
long after most of the people at the game stopped caring.
Let
me put it another way. If I was to compare the game to
a painting � a Rembrandt being the best game I've ever
witnessed and a paint-by-number landscape being at the
other end of the scale � the Knights/Tigers game is what
you get when someone accidentally knocks over a can of
of paint. In as few words as I possibly can use, it was
No bueno.
I
lost interest in the outcome around the same time I lost
count of the number of penalty flags that were thrown;
the number of passes that were either overthrown or dropped;
and the number of turnovers that were committed... by
both teams. It was not pretty.
But
I don't blame the combatants as much as I blame the weather.
It was god awful windy and god awful cold which meant
the football was god awful hard � as in like a brick,
or a cinder block � which made throwing the football,
or running the football, or even kicking the football,
damn near impossible. Still the game must go on. And it
did. Agonizingly so.
The
Tigers had the benefit of excellent field position for
most of the opening quarter but were unable to capitalize
either because they turned the ball over, or they couldn't
complete a pass when they needed to. They were, however,
able to sack St. Peter quarterback Ryan Licandro in the
end zone for a safety to take an early 2-0 lead.
The
Knights were eventually able to put a sustained drive
together midway through the second quarter thanks mainly
to the running of Jonathan Agette who converted a third
and five play with a nine yard run to keep the drive alive.
The
final scoring blow was delivered by Licandro who kept
the ball on a bull rush up the middle.
The
Tigers best chance to score a touchdown came late in the
third quarter when Alex Vilain scampered 42 yards up the
middle to give St. Matts a first down on the Knights'
six yard line. But that's as close as they would get as
a series of penalties not only prevented them from scoring
a touchdown, but took them out of field goal range.
The
score remained at 6-2 in favour of the Knights until midway
through the fourth quarter when St. Pete's decided to
concede another safety rather than risk kicking the ball
into the wind from their own end zone which would have
given the Tigers excellent field position.
Both
teams were ready to head for the showers late in the fourth
quarter when the Knights pulled off a picture perfect
screen pass from Licandro to Agette that covered 33 yards.
A successful extra point attempt made the final score
13-4 in favour of the Knights.
Both
teams still have meaningful games left against tough competition
which will determine the final stand-ings. The Tigers
have two games remaining against Ashbury (2-1) on Oct.
25 and Franco-Cit� (3-0) on Oct. 31, and St. Peter must
still play Franco-Cit� and Glebe (0-3) on the same dates.
The
top two teams that make it to the city championship game
will both earn a berth in the OFSAA Bowl Series which
will take place in Ottawa at the end of next month.
(This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of
our local business partners.)
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