| |
Knights Prevail in Thanksgiving
Day Classic
|
|
The Kanata Knights
Football Club held its annual Thanksgiving Day Classic
at the Sportsplex on October 9 with the Tykes, Mosquitos
and Pee Wees playing the newly formed Gatineau Vikings
while the Bantam squad faced the Orleans Bengals and
the Midgets took on the Bel-Air Norseman. The
Knights were victorious in four out of five games with
the Midgets losing their first game of the season.
Tyke
The weather was exceptional and the Kanata Knights Tykes
performance was nothing short of spectacular as they
romped over the Gatineau Vikings 50 to 13 on Thanksgiving
Monday at the Minto Field.
Encouraged by the junior cheerleaders the tyke offence
successfully executed play after play on a day that
saw the entire team contribute to the win. Sam Kronick
(94 yards rushing and 3 TDs) and Scott Taylor (94 yards
rushing and 2 TDs) led the way for the offence while
Amar “The Rocket” Singh displayed incredible speed in
sprinting 55 yards for a TD. Mahlon Head continued to
burn up the stats sheet tallying 43 rushing yards and
1 TD and Levi Neeson demonstrated his agility rushing
for 32 yards. All the scoring was made possible by the
tenacious blocking provided by Damian Marier, Johnny
Milks, Andy Carmichael, Nick Moffat and Andrew Caicco
which allowed QB Kronick time to execute the plays.
Other notable mentions go to Sean Emond, Zachary Smallwood,
Jake Hamm, Adam Milito and Hunter Perrier.
The defense stifled the Vikings offence allowing few
opportunities for scoring and forcing three turnovers.
The name Logan McKenna is a name Gatineau won’t soon
forget as he delivered 10 punishing tackles, had 17
forward yards, 80 yards in kick offs and on special
teams moved the ball for numerous 1st downs. Carter
Poulin made a spectacular interception and had 3 tackles
while Devin Saumur, Kyle Morley and Connor Smallwood
each made fumble recoveries and combined for 9 head
rattling tackles. Evan Yourth amazed fans with his ability
to kick the ball through the uprights for 4 successful
conversions. Tyler Moffat, Brendan Singleton, Dylan
Lachance and Andre Clarke proved virtually impenetrable
for the Viking’s O-line and Connor Bland, Kyle King,
Jordan Olleik, Robbie Clement and Grant Moser played
with grit and determination making the Vikings pay the
price for every inch of field they gained.
Mosquito
The Knight Mosquitos played a strong game showing hard
work and perseverance by triumphing over the Gatineau
Vikings with a score of 16-6.
The game got off to a rocky start with the Viking defence
scoring a defensive TD, but that was all they would
do. The offence recorded over 8 first downs, including
several sustained drives, scored one TD and were successful
on 2 two-point conversions. John Ladurantaye had
a great game rushing and tallied over 100 yards and
scored one touchdown. Nick Krzaniak contributed 41 passing
yards to the game, and Cassy Aite made 3 receptions.
Sebby Mordak added 36 more yards rushing. Great
blocking, hitting and effort was demonstrated by the
remaining offensive members including Jason Lachance,
Mike Langlois, Cam MacMillan, Graham Bird, James Wilson,
Nick Porter, Tony Le, Andres Rios, Joey Bélanger, Pat
Guilbeault, John Allaire, Eric Thomson, and Zachary
Whitcroft.
The defensive squad had an equally stellar game giving
up only 1 first down, and no points to the Vikings.
They were also able to push the Viking offence back
to achieve negative yards, effectively shutting down
the Viking running and passing games. Curtis Wagner
had a fumble recovery and an interception resulting
in a defensive TD. Mitch Graham led the defense with
7 tackles and 1 sack followed by Mike Zadra with 6.
Evan Swire and Harrsion deCosta each made 4 tackles
and Spencer Cates and Zack Palmer combined for 6 and
a sack. Emil Aite was credited with the second
interception. Devin McIntyre, Zach Andruchow, Eric Oneschuk,
Jordon Gorgichuk, Chase Renaud, Vince Galea, David Nguyen,
and Sebastian Rios added several individual and team
tackles.
Pee Wee
The Pee Wee Knights earned their first victory of the
season by defeating the “spirited” Viking Pee Wees 32-0.
Led by the return of RB Dallon Kuprowski who had 2 first
half TDs, the offence had their strongest game of the
year. Ian Boyle had a great game running scoring one
TD as did wide receivers Eric Poulin and Brandon Lavery
on tosses from QB Sam Lawrence. The O-line played strongly
opening holes for running backs David Dunnigan, Nick
Ziai and Matt Oneschuk.
The defense was led by D-linemen Tyrone Afram and Cody
Henry as they dominated the Viking O-line all afternoon.
Gatineau’s ground game never got going while their passing
game was stymied by DBs Jordan Theoret, Adam ‘The Sauce’
Tatar and Dominic Heallis who also had an interception.
Bantam
Thanksgiving for the Bantam Knights came on a beautiful
Monday afternoon at Minto Field. They could be
thankful that Orleans Bengals may have been talking
turkey before this encounter but left with only humble
pie after a 49 to 0 loss to the blue, red and white.
Thankful that the firm, fast, astroturf favored the
speedier, skilled Knights. Thankful that drawing
more flags than the United Nations didn't translate
to any Bengal scores. Lastly, thankful to be back in
the win column and still on track to defending their
'A' champion status with the victory.
Credit for anchoring the defensive shutout goes to the
entire defensive line corps of Joey Timpson, Steve Love,
Andrew Jones and Benjamin Shayanpour with honorary 'hog'
mention to defensive back Spencer da Costa for his solid
performance.
The offense came back on track in this game with the
turning point coming with 55 seconds left in the first
half and the Knights scrimmaging from their own 10 yard
line. Using the clock to the perfection – the Knights
marched up the field in 5 plays and scored a character
building TD with 1.5 seconds left on the clock on a
perfectly executed Ryan Ireland to Jordan Singbeil pass.
Other notable offensive plays during the game included
a Paul Bekolay TD and Eric Mallory making some big catches
early on to get the party started.
Midget
The Midget Team played two games in the past week taking
on the Canterbury Mustangs at Lansdowne Park last Wednesday
and the Bel-Air Norseman at the Sportsplex on Thanksgiving
Day Monday.
The Knights defeated the last place Mustangs on a cold
and windy night 16-1. While the Knights
generated very little offence, touchdowns were scored
by Corey Armstrong and Markus Lovell and Justin Patenaude
scored a three point 23 yard field goal.
The leading tacklers were- Nathan Quigley, Matt Renaud,
Nick White Matthew Scott, and Shane Nolan who also put
the Knights in scoring position when he recovered an
on-side punt on the two yard line. Mike Richards,
Shane Nolan, Colin Macintyre and Stefan Christensen
each recovered a fumble and Matt Renaud was in on 2
QB sacks.
In their second game within five days, the Knights Midgets
did not fare as well coming out on the losing end of
a 34-0 thumping against the Bel-Air Norseman.
The factor in the game was the numerous injuries sustained
by the Knights defence allowing the Norseman to use
both the run and the pass to defeat the Knights who
are now 7-1 on the season.
Next Action
Four of the Knights teams have a bye next weekend while
the Midgets will face their cross town rivals the Nepean
Redskins at the South Nepean Field on Sunday, October
15th at 3:00 p.m.
|
|
|
|
