JEFFERSON TWP — At least one run of perfection will go by the wayside Friday night.

Hampton (4-0, 3-0), leading the Greater Allegheny Conference, visits Knoch (2-2, 1-2) in a key league football game at 7 p.m. The Knights have won both of their home games thus far while not allowing a single point.

“We’ve played pretty well here,” Knoch coach Mike King said. “I hope that continues. I feel like, physically, we match up pretty well with these guys.”

Hampton has won the past three meetings between the teams, but Knoch reeled off five wins in a row in the series before that. Of the teams’ most recent 15 meetings, eight were decided by the margin of a touchdown or less.

“Of all the teams we play, the Hampton game always seems to be the most evenly matched,” King allowed.

The Talbots have won four tight games so far this season — 48-42 over Allderdice, 32-27 over Indiana, 9-3 over Gateway and 21-14 over Armstrong.

Hampton coach Jacque DeMatteo doesn’t believe his team has played its best football yet.

“We definitely haven’t,” he said. “There are a lot of areas of the game we can improve upon.

“Coming into the season, I figured we’d be balanced offensively, but we want to run the football. Control, the ball, control the clock. That’s the way we want to play.”

Matt Rech paces the Talbots on the ground with 588 yards and seven touchdowns. He ran for 135 yards and a score last week against Armstrong.

Quarterback Ross Anderson has completed 28 of 48 passes for 422 yards and four TDs. Shane McMillen is his favorite target with 16 catches for 212 yards.

Still, Andersson is averaging only eight passes per game.

The Knights have been struggling to run the football. As a team, Knoch has accumulated only 422 yards on the ground — 3.1 yards per carry — through four games. Mac Christy is the team’s leading rusher with 167 yards and three TDs.

“Mac is settling in as our primary back,” King said. “He is a good fit for our power running game. He’s such a big, strong kid ... When he’s hit, he falls forward for another two or three yards.

“We’ve had issues on our offensive line because we’ve had to move guys around with injuries. Ethan Horn was a guard, for example, then had to move to center last week as a game-time decision because another kid was banged up.

“We’ve struggled with our assignments up front. As it stands, we still have a long way to go in that regard,” King added.

Jake Herrit has thrown for 363 yards and three TDs thus far. Tight end Brennan McTighe has been his main target with 10 catches for 182 yards. As a linebacker, McTighe also has two of Knoch’s five interceptions defensively.

“We’re getting out of Brennan what we expected — and that’s a lot,” King said.

Cole Shinsky will return to the Knights’ lineup Friday as a wide receiver-free safety. He will fill the role previously occupied by Addis Crouch, who is out with a broken wrist.

“They will get a boost by getting (Shinsky) back,” DeMatteo said. “We’re going to be getting teams’ best efforts every week.

“This league is so good from top to bottom that you can’t afford to have injuries, you can’t afford mistakes, you can’t make bad plays. To go up there and win, we’re going to have to play our best game yet.”