JEFFERSON TWP — The Plum football team played Senior Night spoiler, defeating Knoch, 35-7, to help secure a WPIAL 4A Greater Allegheny Conference title Friday night at Knoch Stadium.

“We knew we were going to get Knoch's maximum effort,” Plum coach Matt Morgan said. “We did play sloppy in my eyes, still haven't played a complete football game yet, but we're 6-0.”

The Knights (0-6), struggled to get the ball moving offensively against Plum, but in the early going their defense did make some plays to disrupt Plum.

“Our kids defensively, they played their rear ends off,” Knoch coach Brandon Mowry said. “We held them first down, second down, but then on third down we'd give up a big play.

“That's unfortunately happened to us all year.”

The Mustangs' first touchdown came off an Eryck Moore 39-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

Plum cashed in again 18 seconds later after a Knoch fumble left the Mustangs on the Knoch 25-yard line. Ryan Hubner was then able to find Reed Martin in the end zone for the score to make it 14-0.

Martin proved to be Hubner's favorite target. The senior had six receptions for 84 yards and one touchdown.

“Martin works so hard and he's more physically prepared than anybody I've ever coached,” Morgan said. “He's a kid that shouldn't come off the field and he'll be out there no matter what.”

Martin lined up in six different positions Friday night, including punt returner in the second quarter when he broke free for a 67-yard touchdown.

“You always got to know where he is,” Mowry said of Martin. “The formations they use sort of dictate what they want to do with him, we just didn't execute every time.”

Plum took a 35-0 lead into halftime, which sparked a running clock to start the second half.

The Knights got their first points on the board off a 15-play drive that took over 10 minutes off the clock. The drive was capped off by a Keegan Fraser 3-yard rush.

The clock then proved to be the Knights' biggest enemy as Plum held the ball for most of the fourth quarter.

Fraser was the leading rusher for Knoch with 43 yards on 17 carries, but may have re-injured an ankle he has been nursing for a few weeks.

“We'll evaluate him this weekend,” Mowry said. “He kind of gave us a big boost, I thought, and we'll see where the week takes us with him.”

Knoch will have one more shot to collect a victory when the Knights head south to Hampton (4-2) next week.

“I told those guys when we left the huddle after the game every day we come to practice we come to work,” Mowry said. “Did I do everything that I could to make the team successful? If we can get 50 of those guys saying that, we're going to do that, make changes and get that win we want so badly.”

Plum 14 21 0 0 — 35

Knoch 0 0 7 0 — 7

First Quarter

P — Eryck Moore 39 run (Reed Martin kick), 5:35

P — Martin 25 pass from Ryan Hubner (Martin kick), 5:17

Second Quarter

P — Logan Brooks 31 pass from Hubner (Martin kick), 7:54

P — Martin 67 punt return (Gavin Chandler kick), 6:22

P — Hubner 16 run (Chandler kick), 2:19

Third Quarter

K — Keegan Fraser 3 ryun (Brendan Tristani kick), 1:41

Individual Statistics

Rushing: Plum, William Guzzi 3-8, Eryck Moore 5-35, Ryan Hubner 6-38, Vincent Febbraro 1-1. Knoch, Keegan Fraser 17-43, Zane Inklovich 4-15, Tyler Buterbaugh 2-3, J.J. Szebalskie 2-3, Gavin McGowan 10-2, Keith Washington 6-18.

Passing:Plum, Ryan Hubner 8-11-139-0, Jacob Miller 1-1-5-0. Knoch, J.J. Szebalskie 4-8-37-0.

Receiving:Plum, Reed Martin 6-84, Logan Brooks 1-31, William Guzzi 1-13, Maximos Matolcsy 1-34, Sean Franzi 1-5. Knoch, Tyler Buterbaugh 3-20, Jake Weightmanhy 1-17.