JEFFERSON TWP — Knoch football coach Mike King shrugged his shoulders and pursed his lips.

“You can't afford mistakes in clutch situations,” King said. “You can't give up plays. Can't have breakdowns in coverage. Can't have breakdowns in blocking.

“In the clutch, you have to come through,” King added. “And we didn't.”

Last week, the Knights did come through in the clutch in a win over Hollidaysburg.

This week, it was Hampton that came through in crunch time to drop the Knights at Knoch 20-9 Friday night.

“It was just guts. The kids played with guts tonight,” said Hampton coach Jacque DeMatteo. “They went blow to blow with Knoch, which is always well coached. We've never won on this grass. We practiced on grass late this week and we told them to quit whining about it. We made the plays down the stretch. That's what it was.”

Trailing 9-7 late in the fourth quarter, Hampton drove 60 yards in six plays, capped by a 16-yard touchdown pass from Nick Grabowski to Eddie Edwards to take a 13-9 lead with 3:10 remaining in the game.

The drive was kept alive by a 41-yard pass from Grabowski to Jon Floss on a third-and-10 play from the 40.

“We moved the sticks when we needed it,” DeMatteo said.

Knoch (3-2, 2-2) had taken the lead just two minutes earlier.

The Knights had a drive stall on downs at the Hampton 8, but the Knights' defense forced a quick three-and-out and a 15-yard punt.

On the first offensive play, Knoch quarterback Dan Farinelli drilled a pass into the arms of Jim Larrimer for a 20-yard score and a two-point edge.

Unlike last week, though, the Knights couldn't hold on to this late lead.

“We just didn't get it done,” King said. “We have to pick up the pieces and move on.

“You have to score points and we didn't score enough of them tonight,” King added. “We have to get back to the drawing board a little bit and get back to the things we do well.”

Farinelli struggled down the stretch, completing just 1 of his last 9 throws and finished 11-of-30 for 150 yards.

He was also intercepted twice in the game. The second pick, just after halftime, led to Hampton's first score of the night on an 8-yard run by Grabowski for a 7-3 lead.

Hampton (3-2, 2-2) dodged a bullet before halftime when it kept Knoch out of the end zone, forcing the Knights to kick a 19-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead at the break.

“It was psychologically huge for us,” DeMatteo said.

Neither team could mount much of a running game.

Cody Milsom bulled his way for 97 yards on 26 carries. Some of his biggest runs came from the Wildcat formation.

Meanwhile, Hampton's running game was virtually non-existent.

C.J. Arch led the Talbots with 54 yards on 22 carries. He had 37 yards in the first half, but added zero to that total on his first 10 carries of the second half until busting out late.

His 1-yard plunge closed the scoring with 16 seconds remaining.

“I felt our run defense has been strong,” King said. “We have been doing the things that we need to do defensively. We just have to find our offense. That will be priority one for next week.

“What you see is flashes here,” King added. “But flashes don't cut it, not in this conference.”