Knights enter senior football playoffs as top seed

While it didn’t affect the standings whatsoever, some adjustments are sure to be made.

The St. Mary’s Knights and White Pines Wolverines wrapped up their respective senior high school football regular season schedules on Thursday night at Superior Heights.

The Knights wrapped up the schedule in convincing fashion thanks to a 42-0 win over the Wolverines.

The teams are slated to meet again next Thursday in the opening game of the playoffs with Korah and Superior Heights meeting in the other senior semi, slated for Friday night with both games kicking off at 7:30 p.m. at Superior Heights.

St. Mary’s coach Jim Monico said after Thursday’s win that, despite the result “we were a little bit sloppy.”

On the heels of a critical win last week over Korah that put St. Mary’s in the drivers’ seat for top spot heading into the playoffs, Monico said the days leading up to Thursday’s win over White Pines were tough.

“We won on Friday night, that was a big win and then we come back, we don’t practice Monday because it’s Thanksgiving and we only practice Tuesday and Wednesday and we did not have good practices,” Monico said, adding that the Wolverines were in the same boat.

For White Pines, the game turned into an opportunity for some players to gather some experience in high school football.

“We played a lot of guys tonight who have never really had that time to play football in their life,” said White Pines coach Will Basawa. “Seeing them out there enjoying competing and working hard, it’s a moral victory for us in that sense.”

Basawa added that players like Noah Mioduszewski, a grade 12 who hadn’t played the sport prior to joining the team, among others have left a positive mark on the team.

“We found him in our workout room constantly in the off-season last year and he’s out there putting in a performance that earned him a starting position,” Basawa said.

Happy with finishing the regular season at 5-1 and grabbing the top seed heading into the playoffs next week, Monico said “ultimately, I’ve said it a hundred times, it doesn’t mean anything. We need to take care of business next week and see what happens from there.”

Monico said a key plan for the Knights heading into next week’s semi-final against the Wolverines is limiting mistakes.

“The biggest thing that we did tonight was make mistakes,” Monico said. “They held a couple of guys out of the game tonight, so they’ll come out strong. We won’t take them lightly.”

St. Mary’s opened the scoring in the first quarter as Antjony Blonda ran the ball in from 13 yards out. A two-point convert from Nate Carter made it an 8-0 game.

In the second quarter, St. Mary’s quarterback Matti Tucker hit Carter for a 25-yard major to extend the Knights lead to 14-0.

Blonda then picked up his second major of the game on a two-yard run to make it 20-0 before the Knights extended the lead further on a 23-yard touchdown catch by Jack McPherson.

Jaiden Trudeau caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Tucker before Cater kicked the extra point to make it 33-0 and the Knights took a 34-0 lead into the half after White Pines gave up a single point late in the second quarter.

A 21-yard touchdown by Blonda with the Carter convert and another single point for the Knights in the third quarter ultimately capped off the scoring.

Blonda finished the day with 267 yards rushing on 14 carries for the Knights while McPherson had 68 yards rushing on five carries and caught a pair of passes for 28 yards.

Carter also caught three passes for 88 yards for the Knights in the win.

Defensively, Blayre Boudreau amd Cian Derbowka had 3.5 tackles each while Colin Meade had three for the Knights.

Nicolas Louttit had 29 yards receiving on a pair of catches for White Pines while adding 18 yards rushing on a pair of carries.

Damien Hutchens had 6.5 tackles and Nashoba Moore added six tackles defensively for the Wolverines.

In the junior game, St. Mary’s capped of the regular season with a 44-8 win over White Pines.

After the Wolverines surrendered a safety early on, Hunter Jackson scored on an 87-yard touchdown run. With the convert from Amare Valente-Boateng, the Knights took a 9-0 lead.

A 30-yard touchdown catch by Valente-Boateng on a pass from Alex Hayes made it 16-0.

Diego Garcia extended the St. Mary’s lead with an eight-yard touchdown run and convert from Valente-Boateng in the second quarter.

Micah Cuglietta then added a 53-yard touchdown catch on a pass Hayes. The convert from Valente-Boateng made it 30-0.

White Pines got on the board before the end of the half as Adam Hassan ran in from 53-yards out. A two-point convert from Jacob Day made the score 30-8 St. Mary’s.

In the third quarter, the Knights took a 37-8 lead thanks to a one-yard touchdown run by Valente-Boateng and subsequent convert.

Garcia capped off the scoring in the fourth quarter when he caught a 15-yard touchdown pass. Valente-Boateng hit the convert.

Valente-Boateng caught six passes in the game for 60 yards receiving. Garcia added 96 yards receiving on a pair of catches.

Hayes completed seven of 13 pass attempts for 140 yards in the win.

Defensively for the Knights, Heath Desjardins had 4.5 tackles.

D.J. Pine had 73 yards rushing on 18 carries for White Pines while J.D. Boyer had 6.5 tackles and a sack defensively.

The junior Knights finish the regular season with a 4-2 record while White Pines finished 0-6.