The St. Mary's Knights took no chance and punted their way to a season opening victory over the Korah Colts.
The defending city, NOSSA and Central Bowl champion Knights squeaked out an 8-7 win in a tough, hard-hitting high school football senior division contest at Rocky DiPietro Field on Friday night.
With 5:29 remaining in the fourth quarter and both defenses playing well, St. Mary's elected to have Andrew Posteraro punt a single through the end zone in a fourth down and goal situation from the 13 yard line to break a 7-7 tie.
Korah nearly won the game with a hurry up offense on the following drive that chewed up yardage as Korah successfully ran a sweep to the right side of the field with tailback Jon Day several times for large gains. With 30 seconds remaining, Korah kicker Travis Tormala missed a 13-yard field goal on a tough angle, which was returned out of the end zone by the Knights to preserve the victory.
The teams battled to a scoreless first half before Day opened the scoring for Korah on a five-yard touchdown 4:52 into the third quarter. Tormala booted the convert. Kayvon Fatemazadeh, who had an explosive offensive game, scored the St. Mary's touchdown on a 22 yard run. Posteraro kicked the convert.
Fatemazadeh led all rushers with 186 yards on 13 carries including a big 64-yard carry to open the game offensively for St. Mary's. He also caught quarterback Anthony Amadio's lone completion for 20 yards. Knights' fullback Dan Esson gained 49 yards on 15 carries while Amadio gained 39 yards on five carries.
Day led the Korah offense with 116 yards rushing on 25 carries while Pat Koski gained 69 yards on 15 carries. Defensively for St. Mary's, Kevin Nanne led the way with 7.5 tackles while Eric Diboll made six tackles and a sack. Mark Thorburn recorded 5.5 tackles and Jimmy Colizza five while Brian McAndrew snagged an interception.
Adam Day anchored the Colts defense with 9.5 tackles. Matt Parker recorded 5.5 tackles and Tyson Vanderloo made five tackles and 1.5 sacks. Jon Day, with three tackles, made an interception while Vanderloo and Ryan Mallette recovered fumbles.
Week one action concludes Saturday afternoon as Sir James Dunn tackles Bawating at 1 p.m. at Rocky DiPietro Field
In junior division action on Friday, St. Mary's blanked Korah 33-0.
*** The White Pines Wolverines took a bite out of the St. Basil Saints as the opening contest of the high school football senior division regular season took place on Thursday night.
The potent Wolverines passing attack led the way as White Pines beat the Saints 22-16 at Rocky DiPietro Field.
White Pines quarterback Ryan Maunu completed two touchdown passes to Noah Rushon and another to Matt Premo. Maunu completed seven of 11 passes for 137 yards, Rushon caught four passes for 80 yards and Premo caught two passes for 40 yards and gained 87 yards rushing on 12 carries.
St. Basil quarterback Mike Jurich completed seven of 14 passes for 89 yards while Jeff Ianni, who scored a touchdown, rushed for 97 yards on 28 carries. Vince Avati caught four balls for 55 yards while Justin Carter caught two passes for 25 yards and a touchdown.
In junior action on Thursday, St. Basil beat White Pines 20-0.