Senior Boys Football
Knights bowl bound after conquering Crusaders in Kingston
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

Members of St. Peter Knights celebrate after winning the National Capital Bowl semi-final against the Holy Cross Crusaders on Saturday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

The St. Peter Knights are heading to the National Capital Bowl at the Rogers Centre in Toronto next week after they knocked off the Holy Cross Crusaders 33-27 in Kingston on Saturday.

The Knights will be playing Saturday's other semi-final winner, the Crestwood Mustangs from Peterborough who downed Collingwood Collegiate 23-17.

St. Pete's saved their best game of the season for their toughest opponent of the season as the Crusaders gave the Knights all they could handle and then some in battling until the final play of the game.

The Knights took a 33-20 lead late in the fourth quarter and looked to have the game comfortably in hand before the Crusaders mounted an impreobable comeback. After scoring a touchdown with under a minute to go to narrow the deficit to 33-27, they won the onside kick and completed a pair of passes to get to the 35 yard line before the last few seconds ticked off the clock.

Nick Lecour had a career day for the Knights, carrying the ball nine times rushed for 99 yards inclduding three touchdowns on runs of 50, 13 and one yard. He also took his regular turn playing defence where he was a force at middle linebacker, makingt several key tackles.

His first touchdown came on a third and inches play on the Crusaders' 50 yard line in the second quarter. Jeff Veinotte created a crack in the line and then lead blockers Isaiah Harris and Demetri Delakos turned it into a gaping hole for Lecour to run through. From there he was off to the races.

"I have to give a lot of credit to my blockers. I think one guy touched me and I just took off," said Lecour after the game.

The first half was marked by several highlight reel hits delivered by the Knights defence which did a superb job in keeping the Crusaders main threat slotback Aaron Gazendam in check after he made a 40-yard catch early in the first quarter to set up a 15-yard field goal. ended the game with just three catches for 35 yards.

The Knights first touchdown of the game was set by a crushing hit by Dan Fair on Crusaders quarterback John Sullivan. Jamar King picked up the loose ball and rumbled 10 yards to the Crusaders' 22-yard line.

A defensive holding call against Holy Cross would give the Knights a first down on the 12-yard line. On the very first play from scrimmage, Harris went off the tacscored standing up to give the Knights the early 7-3 lead.

The Crusaders responded with an impressive 75 yard drive that was assisted by an offside call against the Knights on a third and one play and a blown call by the refs on a 28-yard pass from Sullivan to Joey MacDonald who made the catch out of bounds before being hit by Shane Dabros. The referree ruled that Dabros had pushed MacDonald out of bounds, but from the view along the sideline he was at least a yard over the line before he was hit.

Despite the call going against them, the Knights managed to regroup and stopped the Crusaders on thrid and four at the seven yard line to force the Crusaders to settle for a field goal. Unfortunately, the Knights were called for lining up offside on the field goal attempt and Holy Cross was given a fresh set of downs on the three yard line. They only needed one play to score and go back in front 10-7.

Isaiah Harris fends off a couple of Holy Cross defenders during fourth quarter action in the National Capital Bowl semi-final on Saturday. Fred Sherwin/Photo

Lecour's 50-yard touchdown run on the next series would give the Knights a 14-10 lead. On the ensuing kick off, Ryan Begin pounded the ball down to the goal line. Holy Cross returned it to the 11-yard line but a 10 yard penalty would put them back on the one. After throwing an incomplete pass on first down, Sullivan was about to get tackled in the end zone on the second down play when he threw the ball into the ground to avoid the safety.

The referees had a choice to rule that Sullivan was either in the grasp in the end zone, on intentionally grounded the ball to avoid a safety. Either way the Knights should have been awarded the two points. Instead, the refs ruled that it was an incomplete pass. The end result was the same thing as the Crusaders gave up the safety rather than attempt to punt the ball from deep inside the end zone.

After the ensuing kick off, the Knights went back to work from their 42-yard line. A pair of back-to-back passes covering 20 yards and 35 yards from Alex Skinner to Dalekos and Nick Wakim would set up Lecour's second touchdown of the afternoon from the 15-yard line. The point after would give the Knights a 23-10 lead.

After the two teams exchanged interceptions on the next two series, the Crusaders found themselves on the Knights' 13-yard line. Three plays later Sullivan called his own number and ran the ball in from the four yard line to narrow the Knights lead to 23-17, which is how the first half ended.

The Knights opened the second half by forcing the Crusaders to go two and out on their first series. Lecour then returned the punt 23 yards and reeled off a pair runs of 18 and 11 yards to set up a 15 yard field goal by Begin.

Holy Cross responded with an 11 play, 68-yard drive which ended with their having to settle for a 15-yard field goal by Gazendam to make it a six point game.

The score remained 26-20 in favour of the National Capital champs until midway through the fourth quarter when they managed to put together their longest drive of the game, moving the ball 75 yards on eight plays that included runs of 10, 20 and 11 yards by Harris and a 21-yard pass from Skinner to Wakim. The drive was capped by a one yard run by Lecour for his third touchdown of the game.

With less than three minutes to go in the game, the Knights went into a prevent defence allowing the Crusaders the underneath stuff which enabled them to move the ball but chewed up valuable seconds in the process. When they finally did score, there was 24.1 seconds left in the game.

After they got the back on the onside kick, the Crusaders had enough time for three or four plays. a pair of completions would get them to the 35 yard line, but that would be as close as they would get as Dabros broke up a pass on the five yard line to end the game.

"That's a good ball club," a relieved Jim Mick said after the game.

The Knights head coach said boith clubs had a pretty good idea what the other wanted to do, it just came down to preparation and execution.

"We had our game prepared for them and they gave us everything we expected," said Mick.

For the seniors on the team, getting a chance to play in the National Capital Bowl in the Rogers Centre is a dream come true. The only other time the Knights played in a bowl game was in 2004 when they beat the Sydenham Golden Eagles 24-10.

Wednesday's game will be broadcast on Rogers Channel 22 on tape delay starting at 10:30 p.m. It will be rebroadcast on Thursday night at 9 p.m

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NCSSAA Senior Boys
Tier 1 Championship

St. Peter Knights

Rushing: # 54 Nick Lecour 9/99yds, 3TD; # 33 Isaiah Harris 13/94yds 1TD;
# 31 Demetri Dalekos 4/25yds; # 12 Alex Skinner 1/9yds

Passing: # 12 Alex Skinner 9-18, 117 yds, 2IINT

Receiving: # 2 Nick Wakim 3/66 yds; # 85 Harrison Lowe 4/31 yds; # 31 Isaiah Harris 2/32 yds

Sacks: # 48 Dan Fair

Fumble recovery: # 55 Jamar King

Interception: # 27 Jordan Stearns

Kick-offs: # 9 Ryan Begin 5/255 (51yd avg.)

Kick-off returns: # 2 Nick Wakim 1/34 yds; # 37 Shane Dabros 3/57 yds;
# 54 Nick Lecour 1/13yds

Punts: # 9 Ryan Begin 3/118 yds (39yd avg.)

Punt returns: # 54 Nick Lecour 2/36yds; # 2 Nick Wakim 1/2yds

Field goals: # 9 Ryan Begin 15yds

Tackles: # 55 Jamaar King 5 solo, 2 assists; # 20 Kyle Hodder 4 solo, 1 assist; # 48 Dan Fair 3 solo, 1 assist; # 54 Nick Lecour 2 solo, 2 assists; # 75 Kristian Lawrence 2 solo, 2 assists; # 37 Shane Dabros 2 solo, 1 assist; # 42 Chris Zablocki 2 solo; # 27 Jordan Stearns 2 solo; # 14 Mike Penny 2 solo; # 52 Kevin Fox 1 solo, 1 assist; # 33 Isaiah Harris 1 solo; # 95 Tyler Jaworski 2 assists; # 99 Shane Patrick 1 assist; # 58 Jeff Veinotte 1 assist

Holy Cross Crusaders

Rushing: # 3 Torrin Clinkinboomer 20/84yds 1TD, # 12 John Sullivan 7/46yds 1TD, # 61 Joe Wilkinson 2/6yds; # 80 Joey MacDonald 1/4yds

Passing: # 12 John Sullivan 12-23 145 yds

Receiving: # 80 Joey MacDonald 4/35 yds; # 11 Aaron Gazendam 3/53 yds; # 75 Jeff Ginn 2/24yds; # 3 Torrin Clickinboomer 1/9 yds; # 88 Matt Hulton 1/17 yds

Fumble recovery: # 96 Will LeFort

Interception: # 23 Brett Murphy

Sacks: # 90 Corey Flude

Kick-offs: # 11 Aaron Gazendam 7/294 yds (42yd avg.)

Kick-off returns: # 80 Joey MacDonald 2/30 yds; # 11 Aaron Gazendam 1/30 yds; # 57 Justin Deodato 1/3 yds

Punts: # 11 Aaron Gazendam 4/200 yds (50yd avg.)

Punt returns: # 16 Gabe Jones 1/5 yds; # 80 Joey MacDonald 1/0 yds

Field goals: # 11 Aaron Gazendam 15yds

Blocked feld goals: # 90 Corey Flude

(Posted 11:30 a.m., Nov. 5)

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