NATRONA HEIGHTS — Shutouts are becoming as common as wins for the Knoch football team.

The Knights (4-0, 3-0) have blanked two of their four opponents this season, including Highlands on the road Friday night in a 24-0 victory.

“The defense played tough again,” Knoch head coach Brandon Mowry said. “Two shutouts now in four weeks.”

Mowry said he credited another big defensive effort to the defensive coaching staff and the players for having an attack-style mindset.

“The kids are opportunistic,” Mowry said. “They're looking to capitalize, and that's what makes it so a good team can be great. We just have to keep going on that path.”

The Knights defense produced four sacks and limited the Golden Rams (0-4, 0-3) to 63 yards of total offense.

Their special teams unit also came up with a blocked punt, giving Knoch good field position, leading to its third touchdown of the game.

After scoring on their first drive of the game, Knoch's offense struggled in the first half due to inopportune holding penalties.

Mowry said coming out of halftime, the offense settled into its option attack and did a better job.

He said the Golden Rams' defense bore down on Matt Goodlin, who had 60 yards on 12 carries in the first half.

“Just made some adjustments on the fly, which was big for us,” Mowry said. “(quarterback) Kam Grassi had a heck of the night making his reads. He ran for a pile of yards.”

Grassi finished with two touchdowns — one passing and one rushing — and he exhibited explosiveness when he kept the ball after a read.

“They were going to key in on Matty (Goodlin), which we said they were going to do,” Mowry said. “It's pretty hard to take all three runners away. It was just Kam's night tonight.”

Grassi finished with 85 rushing yards, second on the team behind Goodlin, who ended up with 98.

“Matt had a huge game last week. People when they see that, they can't let the kid go,” Grassi said. “I didn't expect (I'd have that many rushing yards), but I had a feeling it was going to be there.”

Grassi said he saw the defense starting to hone their focus on Goodlin, so he followed the game plan and watched the defensive end to make his decision.

“(The defensive end) is our No. 1 (read). He came down hard on our running back, so I knew that was going to be a pull read,” Grassi said.

Grassi said the Knights are feeling confident after winning a heavily anticipated game on their schedule, but they don't want to slip into overconfidence moving forward.

“This game is always hyped up, and it's always full throttle,” Grassi said. “We played just an overall solid game.”

Knoch 7 3 14 0 — 24

Highlands 0 0 0 0 — 0

First Quarter

K — Scott Frasier 23 pass from Kam Grassi (Justin Tristani kick)

Second Quarter

K — Tristani 37 field goal, :00

Third Quarter

K — Grassi 1 run (Tristani kick), 7:51

K — Matt Goodlin 5 run (Tristani kick), 3:37

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Knoch, Matt Goodlin 16-98, Kam Grassi 12-85, Keith Washington 3-26, James Johnston 6-20, Joey Wojciechowski 3-17, Gavin McGowan 1-4. Highlands, Brock White 13-15, Kaeleb White 4-4, Chandler Thimons 5-(-8), Jeremiah Nelson 1-3.

Passing:Knoch, Kam Grassi 1-4-23-0. Highlands, Thimons 3-7-49-0.

Receiving:Knoch, Scott Fraser 1-23. Highlands, D.J. Loveland 1-20, Dashawn Holley 1-19, Johnny Crise 1-10