Plan falls together
JEFFERSON TWP — Knoch receiver Jake McTighe caught the fourth-down pass three yards short of the marker, and, with two Hampton Talbots bearing down on him, he turned in the wrong direction.
But there was backup running back John Dewalt, playing only because of an injury the night before, streaking in front of McTighe to take the lateral 17 yards for a first down midway through the fourth quarter.
Four plays later, Kevin Wood kicked a 30-yard field goal on a muddy field to give the Knights the three-point lead they needed to down Hampton 10-7 for their first victory of the season Friday night.
The hook-and-lateral play that set up the game-winning field goal was supposed to be pitched to Andrew Rumburg-Goodlin, the Knights' starting running back, but an injury Thursday night kept him out of the game.
"We had been working on it all week, and it's a little play called 'Whoa, Nelly,'" Knoch head coach Mike King said. "We called it, but the only thing is we ran it with Andrew Rumburg. Johnny Dewalt actually ran that play for the first time tonight, and it was big."
The 11-play drive that consumed more than six minutes was spearheaded by Knights sophomore quarterback Kyler Kenyon.
Starting at his own 47, Kenyon told his team in the huddle this was going to be the drive to determine the game.
He said his team stepped up and knew the "little bit of trickeration" was just what they needed.
"Coach King called the play and I knew as long as the cornerback came up, it was going to work," Kenyon said. "He did just that and we executed it perfectly."
The teams battled to a scoreless tie at halftime and both struggled to move the ball on the wet field.
Hampton had the best opportunity to score, but a fumble on a third-and-goal led to an incomplete fourth down pass from the 17. Neither team gained more than 75 yards in the first half.
But Hampton (3-3, 1-1) took the second-half kickoff and drove 80 yards for a 7-0 lead. Tight end Luke Sweeney caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Phil Powell, who finished the game with 104 yards passing while completing 75 percent of his throws.
Still, a week after running for more than 300 yards on Indiana, the Talbots were slowed down by Knoch's large, physical defense. Hampton amassed only 113 yards on 34 carries.
"Our kids never quit, and we were battling," Hampton head coach Jacque DeMatteo said. "We got three big games left, and we're still trying to build a program and we're still trying to get better."
Down 7-0 with only 64 yards of offense in the first half, the Knights looked as though they might lose their sixth straight game to open the year, but a 23-yard completion to Dewalt jump-started the offense. Kenyon managed to deliver the pass while a Hampton defender was hanging off his back.
The Knights' Adam Tuzikow later scored on a 20-yard run to tie the score.
That play helped Knoch overcome its 0-5 start and move its conference record to 1-1, putting it right back into the thick of the playoff chase in the Greater Allegheny Conference.
This was not lost by any of the Knights, as their postgame huddle was filled with screams of victory. King told them to, "soak it in," pointing to the scoreboard in celebration.
"Who cares about what happened in nonconference?" King said. "We're 1-1, we're .500 in the Greater Allegheny Conference and that's all we're worried about."
